


Dragon Knight

by hakumei_hogosha



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dragons and Magic, Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Secret Santa 2016
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-13 19:09:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 38,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9137506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hakumei_hogosha/pseuds/hakumei_hogosha
Summary: In lands far north out of sight, the Vers Empire sent their strongest foot soldiers, the Terran Knights, and equivalent in caliber, the Orbital Magi, the empire's most skilled sorcerers and sorceresses, in order to discourage any acts of conquest by its Northern neighbors, the Kvef – the Ice Giants.





	1. Alabaster

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ambyrfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ambyrfire/gifts), [icinks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/icinks/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _To my fellow AZ Writer, Ambyrfire. I heard from a friend you liked dragons and I couldn't help trying to be overly ambitious with your request knowing that tidbit. I apologize for the delay and deviating from your request (not exactly a one-shot is it?). Happy Holidays and Happy New Year's!_

_In lands far north out of sight, the Vers Empire sent their strongest foot soldiers, the Terran Knights, and equivalent in caliber, the Orbital Magi, the empire's most skilled sorcerers and sorceresses, in order to discourage any acts of conquest by its Northern neighbors, the Kvef – the Ice_ Giants.  
  
_**Part I: Dragon Knight**_

=I=  
-Slaine-

Cerulean robes emblazoned with fine silver and gold accented ends, wrinkled and crumpled as its wearer desperately tried to climb the walls of ice. Cackling above, a man declared, “Worry not, Slaine Troyard. I'll make sure to deliver your eulogy. Your legend of how you froze in fear before the enemy, cowering in terror as you were struck down for the low born scoundrel that you are!”

Slaine sighed, letting his numbed, chapped and bleeding fingers slide down the wall without resistance and back to his sides. Similarly the hood had fallen as he peered up to see the scarce outline of his bully.

“Maryclian...” he whispered before looking forward. It was futile to try climbing and any magic he could use here would only rebound, spelling outright doom for him and anyone in the vicinity. He was very aware that fellow sorcerers and sorceresses were on top of the ice chasm. They were not involved... surely.

They too were needed for the cause, to impede if not entirely prevent the forthcoming invasion from the North. Reducing this entire chasm to water and steam for him to alone escape was ridiculous. It would compromise the entire operation. He was the fool to be so easily tricked by a noble; no, he was a fool for obediently following the whims of a conceited noble. They were on the battlefield, noble or not did not matter.

It did not matter. He was finished.

Slaine shuddered as a growing, ominous feeling took hold. The wind howled and hissed. The ice began to cackle and crack. New tendrils and icicles formed; the temperature near him, the very air seemed to crystallize.

As he turned, a shadow crept over him and he met the gaze of azure orbs. It was perhaps his first and last encounter with a resident of the Northern lands. An ice giant had somehow fit through the narrow crack in the ice chasm Slaine had been trapped in, or perhaps the ice did the ice giant's bidding. Slaine was in the giant's domain after all; the Orbital Magi had been sent on a daring, ambitious operation. Emperor Gilzeria had commanded them forward to the frontlines, ordaining that they should strike first and display their country's superiority, silencing any possible resistance to Vers' attempts on expansion.

They were all fools.

Slaine clenched his fist and went to punch the ice giant, only to open his palm, releasing an arc of lightning. Upon contact it became fire, and made the ice giant stumble. Slaine rushed forward, diving and sliding between the ice giant’s legs, but came to an abrupt stop.

“ARGH!” Slaine cried and his eyes immediately watered.

He had been slammed face forward onto the ground and where he was touched, he felt his body burn as if seared by the hottest thing on the world – no, it was surely cold.

The confusion of his senses bewildered him, and only amplified as he was forced to flip over and stare face to face with the ice giant... ice giants, more like. His eyes widened, as more had appeared from the entrance and were peering down at him.

The ice giant he had hit no longer matched the others; his dark bark-like skin seemed seared and gray in comparison. It was the very one that pinned him to the ground and surely was slowly freezing him.

A low voice spoke, an ancient tongue Slaine discerned yet found beyond his comprehension, or perhaps his wits had long abandoned him. Looking down to where the ice giant touched his sternum, he noticed black runes start to spread.

 _“That-that structure-- a curse?!”_ Slaine slowly, desperately determined.

It dawned on him what exactly the curse was. His eyes emptied. His hopes extinguished. Even if he was to somehow make it out of this alive, he was no use to Her Highness anymore.

At this point perhaps...

Slaine hurried to grasp the ground and rested his head. He was out of options. This was all that was left for him to do.

As he recited the spell, he could hear the ice giants panic. The scorched one tried to silence him by freezing his throat, the very vocal cords. However it was a wasted effort. The vocal component was superfluous for Slaine as long as he could think; speaking the spell only helped him concentrate.

The ice walls cracked and gave way, and Slaine found himself being drowned in an ever increasing pool of the coldest waters. The very foundation of where he lay had also melted away.

***

“There are no miracles.” He was now convinced as he sank.  
Deeper and deeper.  
Submerging.

Darker and darker until there was nothing but blackness all around. Everything had become distant...  
Eerily everything.  
His fears  
His worries  
The urgency  
The care...

All of it seemed so meaningless. Even she too was becoming part of that everything.

He had clung onto the life she so saved, doing everything he could in her name. He foolishly continued to believe in miracles for her. Yet with this final turn of events as glyphs and runes of forbidden magic loomed and weaved around him, illuminating in the darkness…

He was certain. There were no miracles. Only assimilation or destruction.

“Will...”

Slaine awoke to the blurry view of a candle light. His eyes watered and it burned. He shivered, joints trembling as he tried to turn away from the candle light and retreat into the blanket. The very action was laborsome and the new sight of his arms brought him to a standstill. Runes alabaster simmered in the darkness. They were restraints, restraints for –

His eyes widened and peered to the source of the voice. He could recognize that voice from anywhere. It belonged to her.

“Will he live?” Asseylum asked once again of the troubled medic.

“Y-yes Princess Asseylum, but like those cursed by the Kvef. Either he becomes one of them or he suffers a frozen heart, slowly dying due to a severe case of hypothermia. And those are only the physical ailments, if we were to consider--”

“Are you telling me there is nothing that can be done but grant him a swift d-” Princess Asseylum interjected before falling silent. She dare not speak the last word.

Slaine relaxed into his bed and stared at the ever blank ceiling. He had been taken back to the Vers Empire and somehow, surely by Princess Asseylum's influence, been taken to the Palace's Medical Ward.

To think that he had been found, and survived the encounter...

He really shouldn't have, since as he had foreseen... he was once more troubling Her Highness.

Days passed... or at least he assumed. The very rays of the sun caused burns upon his flesh and now the curtains were forever drawn. Food had only recently been made to sit around for hours on end and it wouldn’t be long before even at room temperature it would not be able to go down.

The nurses and medics shared the same sentiment as Maryclian, the last noble he had seen. Slaine could just imagine their thoughts. If he could, he would do the honors. He would gladly get out of their hair, yet he couldn’t. She would be even further troubled.

Perhaps someone else would...

“Slaine Troyard. Will you continue to lie there? What became of the valiant young man eager to learn the most beautiful blessings of magic?” Count Saazbaum queried, while standing at the foot of the bed, arms behind his back.

For a moment Slaine could have sworn he was back in the lecture hall, but one look at his far pale wrist and its shimmering enchantments, he knew that was all long ago.

“Not even a word, or has the curse spread that far?” Saazbaum continued to inquire.

“What...” Slaine tried. His voice sounded a ghost of what it once was. When was the last time he dared speak... it mattered not.

“What can... I do... for you... M'lord?”

 _“There was nothing of goodwill in this visit. There is no goodwill,”_ Slaine reasoned, and knew that at one point he would have talked himself out of that mindset, but did it matter? No.

Nothing did anymore.

Count Saazbaum had begun pacing, and for a time became quiet, before he pulled back the curtains to reveal it was night. The full moon was out and more than days had long passed. Wreaths and poinsettias filled the town square below. It was that time of the year again. Long ago Slaine felt he had once helped put such decorations up, maybe even accelerated the growth of such plants in the hospital wards to cheer bedridden patients.

To think he would remember it now...

“The emperor passed in the latest battle and we are reaching the point that our very survival may be at stake.”

“The emperor..? Then--”

The count turned and nodded grimly. “Yes, Princess Asseylum has taken the throne, and with it comes the decision of whether or not to use Aldnoah to conclude the war she has inherited.”

“But Aldnoah...”

“Yes... According to the scriptures, Aldnoah will--”

“... Please. Let me.” Slaine interrupted, and dared try to sit up for the first time in forever. He could feel his joints crack after months of disuse. “You... You can't let her.”

“In your current state Troyard, you most likely will never return to even that form.”

“That's fine. I don't care. This life...” Slaine grasped the one piece of his uniform that remained – a silver amulet. “If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be alive today, so if it can be of use to save hers...”

Count Saazbaum nodded and knelt, “For the Empress.”

“For the Empress,” Slaine matched.

-Inaho-

Amidst a battlefield, a blade pierced to the ground and its wielder fell to his knees, clutching its hilt for a moment of repose. The swordsman panted, huffing white clouds in the freezing air, and looked to the land below where lay the damned. He grit his teeth and clutched his left eye, which was heavily covered by a bandage wrap; it was still a fresh wound. Wherever his remaining crimson eye looked, he saw nothing but red, red where there should be nothing but whiteness.

 _"We're losing ground,"_ Inaho assessed as he stumbled to his feet. His vision blurred momentarily yet he mustered every ounce of willpower he could to maintain focus. Bodies -- both allies and enemies -- surrounded him. Was he the last to stand in this area?

The bushes began to shake all around and once more Inaho wielded his sword for the incoming enemies. He was certain they were not allies, for their footsteps were louder, heavier and sluggish – understandable considering they were giants; they were from the kingdom across the wastelands to the north.

 _"I've already been found; escape is a futile effort at this point..."_ Inaho considered his options.

His logic was flawed; however, in the deep parts of his mind he knew that as the only one standing of his brigade, he could perchance hide and by a slim chance, survive. But he could no longer leave this land; his reasons to remain in this world were here. At the corner of his eye he glanced at some of his fallen allies -- particularly one with long brown hair that had shielded a pair of cadets much like himself. They had been his sister and childhood friends.

Revealing themselves under the moonlight, numerous ice giants surfaced from the forest and circled Inaho. Inaho renewed his grip on his sword, preparing himself for the end but caught sight of something glimmering overhead. He initially paid no heed until he saw his enemies start to scurry and flee. What he had seen shimmering was a mass of silver light. The longer he stared in awe, the more clearly he could see its shape as a dragon, which headed to the horizon; within moments, unnaturally the North Lights amassed. The Aurora Borealis danced, piercing and bleeding through the curtain of night. The ground had momentarily shuddered before a strong gust of wind passed by -- surely an aftershock.

Inaho grimaced, once more cementing his feet onto the ground, and cast a grounding spell by reciting a chant in his mind; an orange glyph appeared and pulsated underneath him. Another shockwave passed through but this time accompanied by a saddened cry. The aftershock that followed came with a cyan glow.

"An ice spell?" Inaho pondered.

Looking forward, the knight came face to face with a frozen ice giant; a spell of absolute zero must have been used to even render the giant dead from cold. All enemies had been turned into statues of ice and the land all around had become a spectacle of ice. The land that once was a field of bloody corpses had returned to its seemingly pure white; as if the snow could serve as the blanket for those who had fallen.

Inaho slowly relaxed and sheathed his sword before looking to his palms.

He had survived what became known as Heaven's Fall.


	2. Azure

=II=  
-Inaho-

 _Vers Empire: Royal Palace_  
_Royal Chamber_  
_Four months later..._

“Inaho-san...”

Now wearing ornate burgundy robes, Inaho stood up from kneeling and raised his head to face the newly appointed queen. Notably his left eye now was wrapped by a black cloth; he would no longer see again through that eye.

The senior advisor standing by the queen's side coughed, to which the queen straightened her posture.

“Terran Knight Kaizuka Inaho due to your latest injury you are to retire from the front lines. As thanks for your great service, I would personally like to present you with a gift. Name it and it will be yours.”

Inaho closed his remaining crimson eye and kept silent for quite some time.

“Kaizuka Inaho! Such insolence will not be tolerated!”

Asseylum looked worriedly at Inaho before offering a somewhat troubled smile, surely trying to reassure him, “If it is within my power Inaho-san, I will see to it that it is granted.”

At that assurance, Inaho finally spoke his wish.

“Your dragon then, Seylum-san.”

Asseylum's eyes widened.

Ever since the night of Heaven's Fall, Inaho could not forget the sight he saw that day. No one could. Left and right nothing but death surrounded, seemingly with no end in sight. At least, that is what his fellow foot soldiers – the Terran Knights – would say. However, such had long become a common sight for Inaho. He had prepared for and accepted it when becoming a soldier of the Vers Empire. It unfortunately was a reality that without his dearest friends and family, he alone was forced to continue living. He knew well that none of his fellow comrades would condone him if he tried.

He didn't actually have to try. Even if his superiors hadn’t attempted to rid themselves of him due to his insubordination, still with his sound suggestions to their tactics, the Vers Empire – the very Royal Family and Council – had left him with a potential conspiracy.

Aldnoah was the foundation of the Vers Empire's class structure. The original founders were named the rulers of their land, simply for being the only ones capable of using the ancient world magic, and without fail, their most patriotic and supportive colleagues were kept close at hand. However it was known to all how Aldnoah was a double-edge sword. It was a magic originally bestowed upon the mythical creatures of dragons that had long ago become ethereal, abandoning their corporeal forms for a higher plane of existence. To acquire their power, the mage behind Aldnoah would become the medium and catalyst of such a creature and often die shortly after; the power of a dragon was far too great for a human to contain.

And yet... this very power was used in their final battle with the Kvef without losing another member of the Royal Family.

Someone else had been turned into a dragon and not just anyone. Someone very gifted... or someone very loyal to the Royal Family. Whoever it was, it was someone that surely held the empress's heart, which may have been what was given in exchange for using magic so comparable in power to its forbidden counterpart.

The typical gossip around the palace and the training grounds always spewed how the Empress was without a lover, let alone a love interest, but to Inaho that could not be the case. As she escorted him alone, without guards or advisors, clearly where they headed was a place where without question she would not be in danger. And as her expression grew heavy with each step, it was clear how routine the walk was to the empress.

Inaho could piece together when she had frequented these halls. After all, each time she would have to go through here, Asseylum would cut through the training grounds, especially if time was short.

 _“As expected,”_ Inaho confirmed when the two had reached a rather simplistic door... to the naked human eye.

To the trained sorcerer's eye, the door was far from simplistic or bare. Countless encryptions of various schools of magic snaked and contoured the door. Inaho had to reassess his opinion of the mysterious dragon. Perhaps it was really a purebred dragon. The most obvious runes Inaho could decipher made certain that no one except those with the Royal Family's blessing could enter, specifically only a Royal Family member could open this door.

“Inaho-san..?” The Empress had ended what seemed like an eternity of silence.

“Yes?”

Asseylum lowered her head and childishly kicked at the grass. The door had led into what seemed like a greenhouse. Surely the botanists were forced to accelerate the growth of countless greenery to make this place – a place that had only been constructed in the last few months.

Inaho waited patiently, for he knew at this point even proper etiquette would not bar them from having a conversation without consideration of their differing classes. He knew what Asseylum would say would be of her utmost sincerity.

“I know I had said if it was within my power to grant it, I would... I would like to reiterate that,” Asseylum began and looked up, her eyes no longer in distress and instead determined, “Dragons are not owned by anyone.”

“...”

“So Inaho, as much as I would like to grant your wish... as much as I would like you to do as you imply... I cannot guarantee it will come to pass,” Asseylum went on and looked away, now tapping her fingertips against one another.

She turned and seemed to press forward but stopped upon hearing Inaho following her. She shook her head, “Please wait Inaho-san. No one besides my physician and myself have entered since Heaven's Fall... I'll see if Slaine can see us today.”

 _“See us... today?”_ Inaho pondered, feeling a brow rise while he bowed his head in compliance, and watched the golden hair go deeper into the artificial forest.

Not too far, that is...

A few steps forward, Asseylum stopped and offered her hands; she had retrieved something from her pocket. Something silver glimmered in the sunlight. Something else glimmered too in response and the shine seemed to intensify. That something else was large.

The canopies of the trees shook as it moved forward, making way for what Inaho presumed was the dragon, and each passing moment, each passing ray of light that seeped, confirmed that presumption. Slender yet robust, strong limbs marched forward. Wings subdued to fit through the narrow clearing of the forest, were opaque yet transparent; it was a quandary as to how. The very appendages existed yet did not. Its authenticity as a real dragon seemed ever more clear. It was as if it danced between being a ghost and a physical entity. Only the dragon's scales upon its flesh quieted such suspicions; in the sun they shimmered and mirrored the daylight. Although the texture was scaly like an amphibian, its coloration mimicked that of ice. Seemingly white the further away from it’s body’s center, but pale blue like glaciers the closer. And as a final detail to render all of Inaho's suspicions naught – if the dragon was really a dragon or if the dragon was physically existing – it opened its azure eyes and gazed forward in Inaho's direction.

“Ina...”

“Inaho-san!”

Inaho blinked. He had been stunned at the sight of the dragon, which let out a small huff and laid down, crossing its front feet over one another. Asseylum had returned to his side and placed something around his neck. Inaho took hold of the item and noted a silver amulet with sapphires.

“Slaine has agreed for the time being,” Asseylum informed, “and with this medallion, you'll be able to bypass the security.”

The retired Terran Knight tilted his head while studying the amulet, “If that is the case, wouldn't that compromise the security outside?”

Asseylum was caught off guard by the question and chuckled, “Those runes were created and are maintained by Slaine. Once you've attuned to the amulet, there shouldn't be any problem.” The Empress looked to the dragon to confirm, who had lowered his head in the form of a nod.

“I see. I'll make certain to take care of this,” Inaho spoke and placed the amulet underneath his tunic to not bring unnecessary attention to it.

Asseylum nodded and started to make way towards the door. “You had better, Inaho-san! That is something very important to Slaine... if you lose it, I'm not quite sure I could save you.”

Inaho eyed the dragon who seemed to have narrowed its eyes at him.

“I take it I am better off not knowing what would be the consequences...”

The empress only offered a polite smile; she was implying for certain that was the case. “If you could Inaho-san, would you escort me back to my quarters? I fear it has grown late and Advisor Cruhteo tends to get... overly worried if I am not back.”

Inaho bowed, obliging to her indirect order, and took the lead... or so he thought.

As the door closed behind them, Inaho felt a tug on his sleeve and saw Asseylum's watery eyes.

“Please. Could you...” She began to ask before stopping, wiping some stray tears and walking forward, her composure as empress restored. “Sorry Inaho-san, please... if you could continue leading...”

Inaho took hold of the empress's hand, which had tugged him, and knelt on one knee, kissing that very hand. He looked up, making certain their eyes met and voiced, “I will, Seylum-san.”

He heard her words, which she dared not speak, as if it they were words lost in time, words forsaken from prayer or abandoned.

_“Please save Slaine. Slaine Troyard. Save him from the chains of misery.”_

Inaho gently squeezed one last time before continuing his escort, swearing to himself, _“I will save your precious friend.”_

_Vers Empire_  
_Dragon's Keep_  
_Three months later..._

Inaho could feel the stares multiply and intensify each passing day as he now ventured the path many knights-in-training and senior knights attentively watched in hopes of seeing the empress. He dared not bother to listen to the pointless gossip, but he could easily predict the slanders being made behind his back. Also, he had already anticipated this... after all it wasn't exactly a secret that the Empress wanted to award the former commander of the frontlines. Such an award essentially made anything within reach, even the hand of the Empress in marriage.

As he reached the heavily enchanted door and waited to hear the locks and gears undo, Inaho could feel a small smile form. His heart grew heavy with nostalgia. He could imagine his friend Calm would have definitely pushed for that request, saying she was a 10/10, and Yuki-nee too would have supported him, thinking by doing such he would provide a cozy life. The door slowly opened and as the garden house's sunlight glare reached him, he hushed away such thoughts.

There was no marriage proposal as much as rumors may say. There was only an implicit promise he made with the empress and one he was certain to keep. It was perhaps the last thing he could do for her, now that he could no longer participate in the frontlines, where he was most suited for making tactical decisions.

Reaching a particular clearing, Inaho came face to face to the resident of the garden house, who seemed to have taken a dip in the nearby pond. The dragon's scales shone ever so brightly. Unfortunately such a refreshing experience did not extend to the dragon's eyes; they remained cloudy and glazed. Inaho had long accepted being greeted by such an expression. He had come to understand that this arrangement was only possible out of Asseylum's goodwill and friendship that they both shared. Albeit, Slaine was ignorant of the promise he and Asseylum had made, and Inaho planned to keep it that way.

Inaho sat and leaned against a tree, resting his new stack of tomes next to him and similarly the dragon sat before him, crossing his front legs with a yawn. They had yet to exchange words; oddly enough their attempts of talking made Inaho seem quite the conversationalist.... with himself. Surely the dragon did not exactly enjoy his company but just as much did not exactly loathe it either...

He took it back; Inaho was sure the dragon was more displeased with him whenever he dared share what he was reading, even if it was the dragon's initial curiosity that sparked Inaho's consideration to explain.

_“Her Highness loaned me tomes from the archives. They cover the Kvef's Curse. It's rather peculiar how little has been done to try breaking the curse. There are plenty of records of what the curse looks like in its entirety, yet no one has deciphered it. That being said, it is in a foreign tongue, perhaps of old.”_

The dragon did not like the subject matter and had left him alone in the garden.

Inaho tried another topic.

_“I've heard of your past, Slaine Troyard. I had bumped into Count Saazbaum while at the Royal Library and asked how you were doing. He informed me that you once were a very promising mage, a protege in mobility and precognition magic, but as all Orbital Magi... you were a part of the first battle against the Kvef and--”_

Slaine did not let him finish that tale. The dragon tail whipped Inaho off the tree and into the nearby pond. Talking about the dragon's former life as a human was a definite no-go it seemed.

And so now, the two spent their days in silence with only the sound of turning pages filling the air until the garden house walls became a hue of amber and crimson; the sun was setting outside. At that time, Inaho would take his leave.

This time though he was rather slow in his steps; another day he gained nothing new from the tomes. He had made no progress the past month towards finding a way to break the curse. Inaho sighed as he recollected his most recent conversation with the empress.

_“Inaho-san... Aldnoah normally kills the bearer of the power after releasing the entirety of their mana--”_

_“Heaven's Fall,” Inaho cut to the chase._

_Asseylum nodded and elaborated, “It is due to the curse that he somehow still lives... however I can only imagine that means...”_

_“He is to remain a Dragon.”_

Moments before he reached the door, Inaho turned to the sound of the dragon's movements. It nudged its head at him several times; eventually Inaho discerned what the dragon was trying to tell him. Its gaze remained fixed on the silver amulet Inaho still wore around his neck.

“You want this back?” Inaho asked while maintaining eye contact with the dragon. Inaho grasped the amulet, considering that the dragon could possibly use magic to retrieve it without his consent.

The dragon nodded.

“Why?” Inaho questioned, “Explain and I will consider.”

Slaine looked away and deeply exhaled. The dragon seemed to find this entire discussion cumbersome, but he obliged to Inaho's demands. Slaine approached a little bit closer and inhaled before blowing a gentle gust of wind. It was more than that.

The wind was enchanted and sound waves themselves had been sealed in that wind.

_“That snotty retiree is going there again. He surely killed his entire brigade to gain the Empress's favor.”_

_“I can't stand him! What makes him think he can continuously walk past us like he's above us?”_

_“How about we--”_

Inaho waved his free hand through the gust, silencing the stored gossip, and sternly looked at the dragon.

“Mere rumors will not stop my pursuit in curing you,” Inaho proclaimed.

Slaine huffed once again in his exquisite way of displeasure, yet found it entirely expected of the retired Terran Knight. The dragon once more retreated back into its artificial haven of greenery as its visitor left.

_Corridor Outside Dragon's Keep_  
_Three days later..._

The jealous senior knights had finally acted upon their schemes and ambushed him shortly after leaving the garden house. Quite literally as he was leaving. The very door had yet to close, and from there Inaho heard a sad howl from within. It was unfortunate that things had ended up this way.

 _“Slaine cannot come through that tunnel. He is too large and I am overpowered and outnumbered.”_ Inaho thought and closed his eyes. _“This looks like the end.”_ He never really considered his end much until now. At most he considered his death out on the battle field, sudden and without warning.

Now he regretted not being better prepared for such a fate. Or if he was to meet this end, that he had been so close to the dragon. Slaine had already gone through so much suffering; Inaho did not want to add more to that... and yet he was going to.

_“I'm sorry Sl--”_

Inaho grit his teeth as he landed harshly on the ground. The people that had held him were pushed aside. Upon opening his eye slowly, he felt his jaw drop. A creature resembling a dragon and human stood in front of him. Silver wings and scales adorned a pale teenage boy with unkempt ashen blond hair.

_“Slaine?!”_

“What is that thing?!”

“Kargh... Kai...” The creature tried to say and turned. It was clear how Slaine was inept at changing into a human form. He still had teeth of a dragon and was unaccustomed to using vocal cords.

“Get them!” The swordsman yelled as he got back on his feet.

Slaine grit his teeth.

“ _Dragon Roar_ \--” Inaho quickly recognized and immediately cast a grounding spell on himself.

The thunderous roar blew the four men onto the wall with such force that they fell onto the ground unconscious. Slaine fell to his knees and shuddered, complexion pale and soon biting on his fingers.

“No-no-no. I di- naught-” Slaine stammered.

Inaho struggled to stand and limped to each of the unconscious men.

“It's all right Slaine. They are just knocked out.” Inaho informed and turned to see the dragon-human hybrid sigh in relief.

“Th-th... ank... hank... God. Good. Nus. Ness.” Slaine slowly tried to say as he caught his breath.

Inaho approached Slaine and grasped either side of his arms. His skin was definitely that of a human yet with some scales of a dragon. For an incomplete transformation, the human aspect was well done. If anything perhaps, Slaine was not entirely willing to complete his transformation due to thinking he would need more strength to go against the four.

Inaho tilted his head as he noticed Slaine look away, biting his lower lip which immediately bled red.

“Let me help you,” Inaho offered, approaching Slaine and extending a hand already preparing a healing spell.

Slaine's eyes widened as he saw the blood drip and then looked at Inaho with utmost fear. The hybrid creature shoved Inaho away and stood up.

“STAY AWAY!” Slaine yelled without considering he had subconsciously used his Dragon Roar. Thankfully it was not a full blown roar and only caused Inaho to fall onto his bottom.

“Slaine!” Inaho yelled and mindlessly ran around the greenhouse looking for the dragon.

There was still no sign of the silver creature.

Inaho slowed down to catch his breath. _“He hasn't returned to his dragon form. Otherwise I'd have found him by now.”_ Inaho assessed.

He resumed his search at a slower pace. This time he considered going to the places where Slaine would consider out of his reach.

“Ahh... Hahh...”

Or he didn't have to.

Inaho broke into a run at the sound and found the hybrid form grasping at grass near the artificial pond. As he neared the creature lying on the ground, Inaho could see the head of ashen blond hair turn and glaring ocean green eyes peer at him.

“Slaine--”

Slaine tried to stand once again but struggled to remain on all fours and was about to fall over again. This time Inaho caught him, and he immediately tried to break free.

“Slaine. Calm down.”

Slaine grit his teeth. Inaho could see that he was about to do another roar and in turn, hugged the dragon tightly while haphazardly trying to cast a grounding spell.

“Leg.. Let... Go...” Slaine begged before groaning again. Inaho could see the reason why his companion was in pain. The transformation into a human was delayed. The dragon-like claws adorning Slaine's hands and feet had subsided into that of a human.

“I-I'm... dirty... You... need... to...” Slaine mumbled.

 _“He's barely staying awake for this. He didn't allow this transformation to happen instantly to spare him of this--”_ Inaho thought until seeing Slaine try to cast magic.

“HEY!” Inaho exclaimed. His loud voice shocked Slaine, who looked at him, frozen.

Inaho could see the fear in the dragon's eyes and took a deep breath; he didn't mean to scare him. He let go of Slaine momentarily and removed his outer robe, wrapping it around Slaine.

“Don't... Relax, no one can see us here.”

Slaine hesitantly grasped at the cloth, once again looking away. “But...”

“I won't tell. Now...” Inaho once more embraced Slaine, leaning back onto a tree. “Rest for a bit.”

He could feel Slaine tense momentarily.

“You interrupted the transformation for my sake and you can't utilize your mana precisely to reverse it now.”

Slaine tried to rise himself up from Inaho's chest but Inaho only tightened the embrace. Slaine's shrinking dragon wings trembled underneath the cloth. Inaho rested a hand on the back of Slaine's head, patting Slaine.

“Sleep for a bit. I'll help you transform back afterward. I promised to take care of you, didn't I?”

He could feel Slaine tense again yet slowly Slaine relented, giving in.

“Don't... let... er... see...” Slaine mumbled before his head leaned entirely on Inaho.

After a few moments, Inaho could tell the dragon transforming human had fallen asleep.

 _“I don't think I can avoid that, Slaine.._.” Inaho thought. He could only conclude how a dragon had red blood – he had been transformed by the power of Aldnoah.

And...

Inaho sighed when seeing the head of a particular golden blond enter his sight. It was as if fate was not on their side today.

 _“No matter what I do, Slaine will still be visible to Seylum,”_ Inaho discerned. Slaine after all was imbued with Aldnoah and as Seylum was the magus of Aldnoah, he could never escape her sight. Regardless of how fruitless however, Inaho still obliged Slaine's demand. Inaho could at least say he tried when casting the highest invisibility spell that he could on the two of them.


	3. Amber

=III=  
-Slaine-

 _Vers Empire_  
_Unknown Bedroom Chambers_  
_Unknown Time_

“... I advise we--”

“Your Highness, your presence is required in the Main Study--”

“Ah is it already that time of day? I'm sorry Inaho-san, I will have to leave the current state of affairs to you.”

Two sets of footsteps became further distant to Slaine's exceptionally acute hearing while another set tried to be as subdued as possible when proceeding towards him.

Slaine slowly opened his eyes. His body felt heavy and abnormally warm.

 _“That's right... I... I tried a transformation spell on myself...”_ Slaine recollected when seeing his left arm stretched out

He tried to get up by bringing his formerly flailed left arm towards him and under the pillow but his body would not oblige. Slaine couldn't deny it; he never dreamt to sleep in a normal bed again-

Slaine's eyes opened abruptly just as the bedroom door creaked open; Inaho had walked in.

He shouldn't be in a bed in the first place!

Slaine tried once more to stand up yet his efforts were fruitless. He only fell back onto the bed face forward.

“I'm sorry Slaine but you cannot escape Seylum's sight.”

Slaine grit his teeth; of course she would find him regardless of whatever stunt Inaho could have pulled. Slaine berated himself for not having tried to return to his original form--

“However seeing how your complexion is vastly better than before, I think it was a good move to put you in bed,” Inaho assessed, now at Slaine's side and gently brushing Slaine's left cheek.

“Don't- don't touch me.” Slaine hissed weakly. He was not at all convincing. Why did he feel so weak, and everything so laborsome?

“Sorry,” Inaho apologized and withdrew his hand, except this time bringing the covers back over Slaine's back. It was only then that Slaine could feel the cold air against his skin. He could no longer feel a breeze underneath his wings yet the sensation of having wings remained; they must almost be entirely withdrawn into his shoulder blades now.

“She...” Slaine began upon realizing something even more pressing, though he couldn't bring himself to say more. He could feel the cold shudder trail up his spine; it was a deathly fear he had not felt in an unspeakable amount of time. It paralyzed him to no end.

Inaho seemed to have noticed something was wrong as he again behaved against Slaine's verbal demands; he turned to running his hand through Slaine's hair, which was somehow soothing. Slaine felt like someone had once done this to him long, long ago.

“Don't worry. She didn't. I assure you.”

Slaine sighed in relief and readjusted his head on the pillow. He needed to not be so easily pacified by Inaho. Inaho should beckon to his call, not the other way around.

“I need to go back to my original form.” Slaine cut to the chase. He tried to reassess his mana flow and was displeased to notice how chaotic his control was even after resting for an unknown amount of time.

“You are in your original form.” Inaho commented.

Slaine came to a standstill and slowly stared at Inaho; it became clear that Inaho had stepped on a landmine, yet he was determined to continue on this topic. Inaho elaborated, thankfully before Slaine considered perhaps another haphazard Dragon's Roar.

“Seylum told me about you being originally human.”

“Was. I am a dragon. This is nothing more than a temporary--” Slaine tried to sound convincing and formed fists with his hands.

“Your mana flow is less chaotic--”

“NONSENSE!” Slaine yelled before coughing. He had incidentally used a bit of his dragon voice in his uproar.

“Easy.” Inaho reminded and rubbed Slaine's back.

“Non... sense...” Slaine rasped before retreating into the fluffy pillow. “You said... you'd help me turn back...” Slaine reminded as a jab.

“I can if that is what you really wish.” Inaho was quick to respond.

“I should not be here. I am a weapon for this kingdom to ensure its safety. If the Kvef--” Slaine stopped. Again that icy feeling was coming back. He needed to go back.

The cold.  
The darkness creeping in.  
The inaudible fearful cry.

“Slaine?” Slaine could hear the chair behind Inaho skid back and topple over. The familiar crackling of ice could be heard. It was happening again after so long.

Slaine whimpered as he gripped the pillow tightly. A crackle there. A crackle here. He grit his teeth for each crackle was accompanied by a slash of ice freezing the very veins of his back, encasing his internal organs in frigidness.

“This is--”

“Turn me back. Please. Now! Make it stop!” Slaine cried. He didn't care. He ran through the chant he once recollected.

“Slaine don't--”

He could recollect the runes of the ritual. The day of back then, the day he had consented to being turned. He was no longer a human. He was subhuman. He had been touched by a Kvef.

“STOP!” Inaho exclaimed.

Slaine held his stifling breath but gulped. The pain was too much. The fear was too gripping. As much as he wished to do what Inaho asked, it was overbearing. Slaine gasped when he shuddered. Something warm crept upon him. He could feel his joints relax and his will dissipate the longer the warmth settled upon him. His breath was taken away when he heard the words he could never forget. Slowly, Slaine rose and turned to Inaho, much like he had done that day before being forced to flip over. Halfheartedly, Slaine anticipated gazing once more upon blue orbs belonging to a Kvef. His heart skipped in fear; the sound of freezing water vapor arrived, became so much louder. The fright of being encased in ice and useless upon the bed like that long forsaken night came to mind.

His life as a human had long ended. If he were to dare try, to dare consider remaining human, he would surely become one of them – the enemy – and if not, be fated once more to wait to the end of his days until finally he would succumb to the chilling hand of death.

He needed to return to being a dragon. In his mind, Slaine could recollect the golden runes that spun and blinded him at the altar before. He no longer needed Asseylum to cast the spell, as he had become a conduit of the very scriptures she recited.

… Yet he could not bring himself to mentally recite. It was as if the humming and Inaho's struggling yet gradually improving recitation of the Kvef's curse debilitated him, and he couldn't help falling back to the bed, succumbing to wakeful weariness.

“What... are... you... what have you..?” Slaine tried to ask but now keeping his eyes open was becoming hard.

“For the last several weeks I've been trying to make sense of the Kvef's language, and after seeing the curse firsthand, I now know how to break it,” Inaho elaborated.

Slaine tried to get up again only to feel Inaho press down once more on his back. Inaho had been gently massaging his back. It made little to no sense to him how he was not retreating from Inaho's touch, since before he had transformed and when he was still entirely human, he could barely tolerate the mere air of the room; the medical ward would soon have rendered his room a miniature ice castle if he had continued to remain there. However that seemed no longer the case.

“Don't...” Slaine again tried to fruitlessly tell Inaho to stop touching him; as much as Slaine welcomed the warmth he could only imagine that the curse spread by physical contact.

“Not until you go back to sleep. You need to rest and allow your mana settle,” Inaho refuted, “Don't worry; the curse is not contagious as you think it is.”

“Then-- ” Slaine tried to continue the conversation only to be interrupted by his own yawn.

Inaho finally stopped rubbing Slaine's back and tucked him under the covers once again. Slaine could feel the bed dip upwards; Inaho must have been sitting at his bedside but now knelt before him to look him in the eye.

Inaho persisted, “Sleep. We can discuss the curse in more intricate detail later.”

Slaine couldn't help but comply as he could no longer keep his eyes open. Even the momentary shock could not keep him mentally awake. Perhaps it was a dream though; in all the time Slaine had spent with Inaho in the garden not once did he see Inaho smile – not like right now as he closed his eyes.

***

Slaine awoke to the sound of dishes and tableware clanking.

“Sorry. Did I wake you?” Inaho asked after settling down a wooden tray.

“N-no...” Slaine blurted before reaching for his throat.

His eyes momentarily widened as he began to recollect what had recently come to pass. A mirror was placed on the wall behind Inaho, and Slaine could see his reflection. He was still human.

“Think you can sit up?” Inaho queried and approached Slaine.

“Oh... yes...” Slaine mumbled and slowly leaned on his elbows; he had slept like a log, and had woken up still face forward on the comfortable pillow.

As he sat up, Inaho readjusted the pillow and the blankets for Slaine to comfortably sit against the bed mantle. Slaine noticed Inaho head to a closet and retrieve a tunic, as upon sitting up Slaine had hugged himself for warmth.

“Bring your arms up,” Inaho stated.

Slaine blushed and simply extended his right hand, “I-I can put it on. Just tell me what you did... I shouldn't be--”

Slaine swallowed hard; a spike of absolute cold surged up his spine. His offered hand faltered back to his side, once more he hugged himself for warmth.

“Your arms. Up,” Inaho repeated and again Slaine had to give in.

With the beige tunic rolling down his arms and his head peeking out, Inaho tugged at the bottom before presenting the wooden tray on Slaine's lap. Slaine's brow twisted when he noticed the mushroom soup was freshly made and the bread appeared soft, definitely also baked within the last day or two.

“Inaho, I--” Slaine grimaced as he swallowed hard and touched his forehead. He could remember the last time he faced a meal such as this. He could remember how he immediately--

Inaho sat on his bedside and cut a piece of the bread. He then brought the piece of bread to Slaine's mouth. “Don't think about it and eat,” Inaho again spoke in a rather annoying manner.

Slaine opened his mouth to speak only to be silenced when the bread was forced into his mouth. Immediately, he bit down and swallowed. “Kaizuka--” Slaine tried to continue what he had originally intended to say but was again at a loss of words. He could feel the bread go down his throat without impediment.

“Kaizuka--”

“Inaho,” Inaho corrected and insisted, sighing as he cut another piece of bread and this time lathered it with some jam.

“Inaho... what exactly did you do?” Slaine finally managed to question and with hesitant hands, took the recently cut piece of bread.

“Bölvun hafði verið kastað  
Forever greip í dauðum hendi fortíðinni  
ótta hans voru að nokkru endast”

Inaho recited as Slaine nearly dropped the bread.

“Y-yes I know that spell incantation,” Slaine confirmed; he presumed that was what Inaho implicitly was asking as Inaho stared silently.

Inaho tilted his head, crossed his arms and asked, “What do you think it means?”

“Considering the physical aspects...” Slaine mumbled to himself while stirring the soup, “it may be obvious to say this, but it is definitely ice in nature...”

Slaine chuckled to himself, berating his rather rudimentary answer. He reckoned if it was years ago – however long it had been since he last walked the halls of the Orbital Magi – he would have offered a far more insightful response. The tomes of yore were then more fresh in his mind compared to now. Now he felt he had only – barely and recently – walked out of a dense and thick fog, somehow.

“Yes but the words themselves deal nothing with ice,” Inaho informed, “from what I can decipher, they are more...”

Inaho seemed to pause oddly and Slaine raised an eyebrow. “More..?”

“Emotional,” Inaho supplied. Slaine groaned as he could see why Inaho had held back. “And considering your response to the rebound spell, I think it is a sound assessment.”

“What exactly were you able to decipher of the Kvef's language?” Slaine implored and loudly let the spoon fall into the empty bowl.

Inaho detoured as the sound brought his attention to the bowl. “It seems your appetite after all this time is still intact,” Inaho said as if to confirm his assessment.

“...” Slaine blushed while wiping his mouth with the napkin.

“How was the soup?”

“...” Slaine shifted his eyes, debating how to respond, “... It was delicious.”

“And the bread?”

“Crumbly but more...” Slaine stared at the remaining strawberry jam. Something about this was different than the soup, “fulfilling to eat.”

Inaho smiled again and this time Slaine was certain he was awake. He could feel his ears turn red when Inaho took the wooden tray away. “I'll make certain to inform Seylum you liked her bread.”

“Seylum--” Slaine repeated before berating Inaho, “Don't address Her Highness so casually!”

Unfortunately, such scolding fell to deaf ears as the door to the bedroom shut behind Inaho.

_Vers Empire_  
_Royal Garden_  
_Few weeks later..._

“It'll be fine,” Inaho attempted to reassure, standing at the bottom of the stairs. Unfortunately, his emotionless face and flat tone failed.

Slaine stood at the palace entrance towards the staircase leading to the backyard of the Royal Palace. Spring had arrived and he come to realize it had been almost two years since he was cursed. Inaho walked back up the stairs and offered his hand to Slaine, who still remained hesitant, perhaps frozen in place.

“Slaine...” Inaho began. His crimson eye seemed to pierce Slaine, peering and most likely after weeks of cohabitation could decipher his behavior. It worked both ways however and he knew if he did not move--

“We can try this another day, Slaine. We don't have to rush,” Inaho continued and Slaine could slowly see Inaho take back his offered hand.

“N-no. Sooner we get this over with, the sooner we'll know... we'll know the extent of your rebound spell,” Slaine countered, gulping and tightly squeezing Inaho's hand.

Inaho pulled him forward, causing Slaine to stumble out of the doorway and under direct sunlight. They did not move a step more, much to Slaine's surprise. Slaine had anticipated that Inaho would've continued further... considering he originally waited downstairs.

“Well?”

Slaine blinked. “Ah... uhm...” Slaine regained his bearings and started gazing towards the sun, before looking back at his exposed skin. There was no sign of sunburn and he wasn't feeling any sense of discomfort. “I-I think I am fine,” Slaine whispered; he was thoroughly surprised and began to hope-- he shook his head. It was too early.

Inaho could see his struggle and tightened his grip, entwining his fingers around Slaine's. He led them down the stairs, where they began to take a stroll through the blossoming trees. It was surely one of the best days of spring.

“Let's try walking the perimeter of the garden. You may only be able to tolerate being outside like this for a set duration,” Inaho considered.

“True but if we tread too far--”

“Don't worry. I have a teleportation charm prepared by Doctor Yagarai if it comes down to it,” Inaho cut Slaine off.

“Th-thank you for your consideration,” Slaine mumbled and tried to enjoy the sight. The view of the falling petals, the warmth of the sun rays and the fresh air was exhilarating.

Slaine could feel his eyes water when the further away they went from the palace, nothing was happening to him. No sensation of the debilitating cold was gripping him – a condition Inaho simply termed 'the frost'-- and the reality of once more living the life he swore had ended, was becoming more and more possible.

They eventually had looped the Royal Gardens three times before Inaho finally stopped at a small stall, where the palace staff were fixing small snacks for the gardeners. Inaho managed to sneak some hard boiled eggs and tea, which he took to a nearby tree. There, the two sat down and snacked.

“No change?” Inaho asked, finally breaking what seemed like hours of silence.

Slaine was in the middle of chewing and simply nodded in response.

“That's promising. Tomorrow we can see if may be any sunburns magically appear before we can finally declare we can finally creed that the rebound spell can be tested on other cursed victims.”

Finishing the boiled egg and taking hold of the tea cup, Slaine asked, “That reminds me Inaho, you never elaborated what you did – this rebound spell you speak of. Also, I think it may be too early to consider. Your first target wasn't entirely... human.”

“True. You are a human imbued with Aldnoah and humans normally do not carry a dragon's worth of mana,” Inaho commented, inadvertently sidestepping Slaine's question.

“...”

Inaho could see in the corner of his remaining eye Slaine's frustration and Inaho closed his eye for a moment before answering, “It's not necessarily a spell.”

“Not.. a spell?”

Slaine's eyebrow rose just as Inaho expected. “The curse causes wounds similar to those caused by ice magic but... the curse does not inflict those wounds through ice magic, rather when a condition is met.”

Inaho looked up to the tree's canopy and remained silent.

“What condition?” Slaine exasperatedly asked. Even Slaine had a limit to his patience.

“I'll tell you if you answer me,” Inaho said.

Slaine sighed and rested the tea cup on his lap. “What is it, Kaizuka Inaho?”

“If you could continue your life as a human, what would you do?”

Slaine blinked, his expression becoming surprised and blank before falling sullen. He bitterly smiled. “You shouldn't ask me something that's impossible.”

“I beg to differ, but perhaps you don't want to know the entirety of the curse.”

Slaine furrowed his brow; clearly Inaho was playing with him. “I'd like to... see the North.”

Inaho remained silent, still gazing to the canopy, or so he let Slaine believe. He could see Slaine was once again becoming lost in his thoughts. Little did Slaine know how in such moments his smiles were true and he resembled the precious friend that Seylum had told Inaho about multiple times during Inaho's days training as a Terran Knight tales of the lowborn gaining a place among the Orbital Magi, the highest honor for a magus.

“Even after all that has happened to me... I can't help thinking how beautiful the land seemed afar. The slopes of ice undisturbed and the sky entirely filled with starlight. No sign of light pollution for all to admire the constellations and...” Slaine paused as he chuckled and peered at Inaho, who he had now caught staring at him, “after hearing you repeat that god forsaken curse so many times these past few weeks, I dare say the Kvef's language sounds eloquent and elegant. I can only imagine what those words mean.”

“I see.”

“Now Kaizuka Inaho, what was the condition for the wounds?”

“Fear.”

“I see.”

“...”

“...”

“The rebound spell... you wouldn't mean...”

“That's right. To counter the curse, I would have to be interested in y--”

Slaine had blushed, becoming rosy pink on his cheeks as he slapped Inaho. “No way!” Slaine spoke in a loud voice, clearly in denial and stood up, storming back towards the palace.

Inaho got up, taking their teacups and commented, “Perhaps we don't need to worry about sunburns tomorrow.”

“SHUT UP INAHO!” Slaine yelled before breaking into a run.

_Vers Empire_  
_Royal Library_  
_Few months later..._

“Slaine,” someone called for him.

Slaine finished putting back the book on the shelf before heading back down the ladder. He knew who was waiting for him below.

“How are you feeling?” Inaho asked.

Slaine sighed, now long exhausted from Inaho's constant attention, “I'm fine now. It's been weeks, Inaho, since I last felt the frost, so go back to being retired. The records have become disorderly since the last time I was here. Count Saazbaum will--”

“Will have to find a new librarian.”

Slaine blinked, to which Inaho sighed and retrieved a rolled parchment. Taking the rolled parchment, Slaine began to read its content and with each word his eyes widened, every so often looking up to Inaho and back to the parchment:  
_“As of this day forward, Kaizuka Inaho has been appointed Dragon Knight and will accompany Dragon Magus Slaine Troyard to investigate the Northern Lands.”_

“You’ve got to be joking,” Slaine blurted.

“We are to be on our way before daybreak,” Inaho informed, taking Slaine's hand and dragging him out of the library.

“Wait! I have to inform--”

“I have already told the count of the developments and he wishes the best for us,” Inaho interjected.

It was when they were outside the library, in one of the less busy corridors, that Slaine finally came to halt and removed his hand from Inaho's, forcing Inaho to look back. “Inaho you do know that means...” Slaine began and shifted his eyes elsewhere, away from Inaho.

“It is unknown when we will return, but Seylum has said to consider it an early Honeymoon--”

Slaine turned bright red and fumed, “Honey-honey moon?!”

Inaho did not elaborate, only offering again that small smile that appeared more frequent, and proceeded back to their shared quarters.

“Kaizuka Inaho! Explain yourself! What is the meaning of that?!” Slaine yelled, running to catch up to the newly-appointed dragon knight.

They were in for a long trip.  


_-Fin_


	4. Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Second Arc start!_  
>  The Dragon Knight and his magus venture northward to lands unknown to the Vers Empire. The trip wouldn't only be long; it wouldn't be without bickering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To my dear friend, writer sempai, and doting Obaachan, Icinks/Plum,
> 
> Happy Belated Birthday!

_**Part II: Dragon Magus** _

=IV=

-Inaho-

A sparkle of golden light slowly twinkled and soared towards a gathering maelstrom of similar shine. The light resembled fireflies in their luminosity; and in the dead of a winter night, such light appeared like a beacon of hope for warmth to the freezing Dragon Knight. Inaho remained vigilant at his post, defending his magus by standing between a gathering of wild animals they had disturbed in their most recent trek through a maze of caverns. They had underestimated how perceptive the wildlife were in these parts, untraveled by people of Vers.

Inaho clenched his teeth from chattering and tightened his grasp around the hilt of his sword. “Slaine,” he curtly addressed after straightening his blade towards the more threatening saber-tooth cat; it showed all signs to pounce at any moment as it inched ever closer.

 **“Ceò deigh èisteachd ri mo ghairm...”** Slaine chanted as the magic accumulated in his clutched amulet. His brow contorted more when he was again called by Inaho; Slaine continued to ignore in order to maintain his focus, **“Uisge a thoirt bho os cionn agus a bheir orra 'tuiteam.”**

Inaho frowned when the saber-tooth cat lunged; he thwarted its efforts by redirecting the saber-tooth to their side with his blade. As if the animals had sworn a truce, an ice troll seized what it thought was an attack of opportunity but Inaho utilized his left free hand, extending it before the ice troll and opening his palm. **“Loisgidh,”** Inaho stated and a small ball of fire released itself upon the ice troll.

The troll groaned as it leaned forward on itself. However what Inaho had done was simply a stopgap at most; the troll and saber-tooth were just two of many and even the very two he “handled” could still continue. The dragon knight sighed and looked over his shoulder to his magus. They were running out of time and the fact the two were cornered in a cavern of ice seemed to seal their fates of being overwhelmed.

 _“No,”_ Inaho reconsidered when eying the growing sound of water. The very walls of the cavern they were entrapped in, rapidly turned into steam. The steam began to rise and unnaturally start to collect in the gap between the disturbed animals and themselves.

 **“Ceò don bhreith aca. bacadh agus a bhith mo bhalla!"** Slaine finished with a booming voice.

Magic fashioned in golden calligraphy pulsated and dispersed into alabaster, moved forward and shaped the gathered water vapor to do Slaine's bidding. Brusquely a fog had formed, the trolls' growls morphed into whines and their once ferocious stomps paused to a stubble. Instantly the gathered water vapor sublimed into large icicles and formed a barrier of ice.

“Did you not learn basic etiquette Kaizuka? You should never interrupt or disrupt a magus in the middle of casting,” Slaine scolded.

Inaho faced his magus, who beckoned towards their potential getaway, and the two broke into a run. Running alongside him, Inaho curtly replied, “I know you do not need the incantation.”

“No but- wait! What do you mean--”

“Why not fire magic?”

“Fire would be far too risky. We could risk affecting the environment beyond our expectations.”

The knight stopped in his tracks as they reached the edge of the cliff; the plummet was far too large to simply jump.

Inaho stared at the magus, expressionless but Slaine knew otherwise – the knight was far from impressed, especially with the developing circumstances. However Inaho gazed further back to see the animals they had disrupted back on their immediate trail. They were cornered.

_CRACK!_

“...” The two turned to one another before looking down. Ice. Cracking ice was under their feet, underneath snow.

The trolls began to retreat as the mammoths began to slide forward.

“Slaine--”

“I am not using fire magic!” Slaine shot down and grabbed a hold of Inaho's right forearm. The magus ran towards to the edge of the cliff. “Hold tight!”

Within a blink of an eye, they had jumped off and were in free fall. Only for halfway from certain death. Inaho grunted when landing on something abruptly. As Inaho regained his bearings, Inaho rolled to his side and stood on all fours. Slaine had turned into a dragon and the two soar over the pine tree canopies below.

Inaho had considered such an outcome but not entirely. The knight blinked, speechless and breathless. On Slaine's back, the horizon seemed ephemeral. Wherever Inaho could see, auras he had not seen before loomed and danced in the wind like natural currents in the sky. Unlike the wind, the magic was visible. Little threads, sparkles of light colored silver and white twisted and twirled with fog filled with small specks of water vapor forming various precipitation. Towards the trees, sound waves pulsated from the ground and the very foliage resonated, radiating green with the magics of life. And to the horizon, to the sun all arrays of magic spread to every direction, seemingly never ceasing.

Or so he thought. The dragon was rapidly descending to the ground and without warning.

“Slaine are you--” Inaho started only to look up and see a branch.

**_THUD!_ **

***

-Unison-

Groaning, Inaho sat up and rubbed his lower back. He had landed terribly.

“About... time you got off,” Someone spoke from below him.

Apparently, no worse than his companion who looked over his shoulder, chin resting on his palm. Momentarily the magus rose and dusted himself off of the dirt and snow that stuck to him but it was clear their latest encounter costed him far more than Inaho.

Slaine politely smiled; Inaho knew better and was certain Slaine was holding back from potentially being irritated. He asked, “Inaho... please tell me you brought another change of clothes?”

“...”

“... I ju- I just... I just turned into a dragon to save us from a fatal fall!”

“I had thought you would have already considered that potential problem.”

“...”

“And didn't you say the cold didn't bother you anyway?”

“...”

The magus stared at his knight with glazed eyes. He inhaled deeply and crossed his arms before silently walking northward but halted when a cloak was tossed onto him. Slaine blinked when pulling the cloth over his shoulders and faced his companion. Inaho's face may at first glance seem unchanged; Slaine knew otherwise. Slaine chuckled and resumed his pace. Inaho definitely would have preferred avoiding this turn of events, especially if it means him tolerating the cold more.

 _"Ah I see... He had his garments enchanted with warmth. Typical,"_ Slaine observed as he clasped the leather belt to secure the cloak around.

As they progressed further north, the magus and his knight paused when reaching a clearing suitable for camping. It was a common conclusion they reached as both stopped when seeing the last traces of sunlight fall past the horizon and the blanket of night started to descend into the forest.

Inaho had approached the center of the clearing, tracing with his finger a glyph and once more casting a spell of fire. He had assembled a campfire while Slaine seemed to pace around him but Inaho had long become accustom to what seemed like bizarre behavior from Slaine. Slaine's left hand was out stretched and at a closer glance, specks of light followed his gesture. Wherever Slaine had passed, the makings of a magical barrier was being placed and other necessities for camping was being situated. A tent was put up and when Slaine finally joined Inaho at the campfire, Slaine had summoned forth venison and other ingredients the two had gathered on their way here -- to be exact, what had caused the ruckus of today's events.

The food items floated before Inaho and one by one, Inaho pointed and the pieces were cut before being placed into a pot of boiling water. Slaine sat before the fire, hugging his knees to his chest and brought the cloak again around him. Inaho, on the other hand, knelt before the campfire and was preparing dinner. However he noticed the magus was glaring daggers at him.

“Don't even think about it Kaizuka Inaho,” Slaine declared. A tinge of spite resonated in his tone of voice.

Inaho tilted his head in confusion after pouring stew into a bowl and handing it to Slaine, "Think about what?"

Slaine sighed exasperatedly and lifted his head to properly face Inaho. It was clear evermore to Inaho how annoyed Slaine still was. “... Do I need to ask where you are looking? What do you expect of me when all my clothes have been ripped?!”

“Now that you mention it...” Inaho mumbled and started gazing at Slaine inquisitively.

Slaine blushed before clenching his fists and teeth, closing his eyes.

_PUNCH!_

Inaho sighed as he tried to recover from Slaine's punch on top of his head by asking, "Why do you persist in not using fire magic?"

"Really Kaizuka? Do I need to remind you the potential radical environmental changes it may impose?"

"With the right amount, it would have negligible effect," Inaho countered.

Slaine looked away, biting his lower lip. There was more to it. Inaho had suspected such but now such suspicions were confirmed. Such suspicions were also thoughts Slaine was now or has been clearly avoiding to voice.

"You most of all know this," Inaho added.

"Inaho," Slaine addressed curtly. The magus did not want to continue this topic. Inaho could see the magus's grip his shoulders tightly with whitening knuckles and how they shook.

He would not stop.

"There are only two reasons I can see you push for that conclusion -- one you are still traumatized from when you were first cursed or--"

"Kaizuka," Slaine tried to interject and this time, his eyes glowed an eerie blue. His irises resembled that of a dragon and for a moment, Inaho could of sworn seeing the magus's breath resemble steam... like if a small flame had escaped his lips.

"Two you cannot control your magic output," Inaho felt the rest of his presumptions be voiced.

Slaine closed his mouth and arched his brow. He was surely angry yet he did not retaliate. Slaine agreed with Inaho's assessment and because he agreed, he could not bring himself to have what may seem an irrational yet expected reaction.

The fact he did not retaliate worried Inaho and even more so when the two did not exchange another word, simply retiring for the night soon after.

***

-Inaho-

 The following morning, Inaho woke with a jolt and shuddered, hugging himself. Looking down from his bedroll and blanket, Inaho found something missing only to find it when looking up. His companion now clothed seemingly ambivalent and unaware... entirely not at all suspicious as he was making them breakfast at the campfire.

_“Report: Day 14 beyond Vers Empire. Bedroll lost for... emergency clothes. Please charge Dragon Magus Slaine Troyard for one uniform replacement upon return.”_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** And so the second arc begins! I apologize for the delay as the writer slump/block was still prevalent until late. As much as I would like to promise weekly updates, I do not want to make promises I cannot keep. I can only promise for certain this will be finished :) 
> 
> Thank you very much for the support throughout _Dragon Knight_!


	5. Mist

 =V, Mist=

-Slaine-

 

_???_  
_???_  
_???_

He could not remember why. He could not see. His sight was blurred and it hurt to breathe. All he could see were his feet. They were small.

“ _Small?”_ Slaine pondered to himself.

“ _A memory? No... this is a dre-”_ He began to piece together until--

“Gah!” He whelped as he fell backwards when the ground gave way.

Desperately, he reached for something to hold. Anything.

_Anything at all._

“ _Just like back then...”_ Slaine realized as only nothingness was within his grasp.

Fruitlessly he kept trying while his willpower seeped away with each attempt.

One. Two. Three.

Nothing. Nothing. Not-

Slaine's brow rose. There was still nothing yet the texture changed. He could feel the weight of water whisk through his hands. His movements had slowed and become cumbersome.

“ _I'm falling again... submerging into water. This isn't a dream as I--”_ Slaine halted the thought.

His body was becoming all too familiarly rigid and victim to frigidness.

“ _Is this-- No! No!”_ Slaine cried and hopelessly curled into a ball, hugging himself.

He clenched his teeth; he closed shut his eyes. He forcibly filled his mind with repetitions of anything and everything – anything to distract what he suspected was the frost.

He shivered. His heart could not be deceived. Again he failed.

Warmth.

“ _Warmth?”_

Slaine shuddered again; blinking when seeing a golden light wrap around him from behind. He turned to the source – a hooded sorceress that wept. Hair of matching light fell from beneath the hood.

Hesitantly, Slaine reached out to her. “ _Asseylum..?”_ Slaine wondered; it made no sense considering they were at least three weeks travel away from Vers.

He held his breath and the fear renewed. He brought back his hand when seeing the sorceress abruptly pushed back against the darkness and slammed against a seemingly invisible wall.

“No... it's not invisible,” Slaine realized, and he grit his teeth again, his hands forming fists.

He wanted to look away when seeing the sorceress's identity unveiled. It was Asseylum as he had thought. It was Asseylum from **that day**.

The golden runes had dissipated around him. The warmth he felt was an illusion.

Slaine stood as the scenery changed.  The darkness dispelled; the invisible walls revealed. The memory of the past unraveled. The Ceremonial Room was constructed before Slaine, bringing to life a nightmare Slaine had long tried to forget.

It was all **his** fault.

Inaho's words had echoed in Slaine's mind, haunted him in his bouts of lethargy and now in his dreams, jogging back unpleasant memories, bringing up concerns that need not be addressed... now.

“ _One you are still traumatized from when you were first cursed or-”_

Not now at least.

_"Two you cannot control your magic output."_

That day Slaine had been bestowed the blessing of Aldnoah, a rite that should solely be used for the Royal Family. It was a ceremony that should not have happened.

It was a ceremony that had to happen.

There were no small human feet underneath Slaine. The sorceress struggling to her feet was no longer his height. She had become so small. So fragile. But still the innocent savior he swore his everything to protect and serve.

He owed her his life. If it weren't for her--

Slaine braced himself. The sensation of the rigid coldness renewed and overwhelmed with a vengeance. This time he did not fear; this time he knew what this was.

A voice he had not heard since then spoke. At first, Slaine could not hear. He had long stifled it, muted it. Of course in time such would not work.

“ _Again I must...”_ Slaine decided and gulped, thinking of another sealing spell.

The voice, the very thought could never be realized.

“ _I don't want this! I'm human! Human!”_

“ _No.”_

“ _I want to live!”_

“ _No.”_

“ _I want to live! I want to live!”_

“ _N-”_

“ _ **I WANT TO LIVE!”**_

“NO!” Slaine yelled and his 'new' form reflected his struggle with a thunderous roar of a dragon. The walls cracked as he shrieked a painful cry.

He had succeeded and the memory distanced, separated itself from him. Slaine no longer existed as a dragon. The memory had become a separate entity, detached  altogether.

From afar, Slaine tiredly stared as the memory played back, before becoming lost to the haze and mist of purposely skewing the memory. However the emotional toll still weighed heavy upon Slaine.

His legs buckled and gave way when Slaine saw the last bit of his sealing spell occur –- chains of old, chains of fire, chains of light, chains of thorns repeatedly wrapping and hiding the memory away.

The sensation of then remained. It was a sensation originating from something dark. Something barbaric, dark and despicable. It belonged to the beast within. The beast known as man. The atrocities, sins and foulness of man.

Dragons were pure creatures of mana – a nature far withdrawn from man.

This was why Aldnoah was forbidden.

It made the impossible possible; the existence of a contradiction.

This was why no one lived after using Heaven's Fall. Man can neither contain nor control a Dragon's magic.

He could not control the magic.

He could not--

“No. No more,” Slaine stopped the train of thought.

 

_Northern Lands_

_Dawn of the 15th Day_

 

He had grown tired and as he awoke to a particular knight's snore, Slaine sat up feeling even more tired but now annoyed. Slaine sighed and bitterly smiled, poking the cheek belonging to the ignorant, blissfully sleeping Dragon Knight.

“It's all your fault,” Slaine accused in a half-joking, serious tone of voice.

He mused to himself, “ _If I hadn't left the arboretum, there would be no fear of becoming a savage dragon or a loose canon magus... If I hadn't left the arboretum, there would be no shadow of a doubt--”_

Slaine withdrew his hand and cradled his head. A singe of pain seared, rendering his mind blank. “Ugh!”

“ _Heaven's Fall is not a spell to be trifled with, even as the wielder. Don't forget--_ _**gleyma heim! Himnaríki!”** _

His eyes widened.

The voice he swore he sealed away had spoken.

Before, he could not identify it, but now realized. It was his, and worst of all, it began to speak in the Kvef's tongue.

 

***

-Inaho-

 

_Early Afternoon_

 

Inaho frowned as he felt a shiver climb up his spine. He had prepared himself to tolerate the cold when he gave Slaine his cloak; he did not, however, do so with his tunic as well. Surely, the magus had discerned Inaho's handiwork.

“ _The cold isn't the only issue,”_ Inaho sighed deeply when looking at the thief so-called his companion.

“No need to be so butt hurt Kaizuka. Surely, a pelt would be warmer and more to your fancy than a mere enchanted cloak and tunic,” Slaine reasoned in an exasperated voice.

Slaine had also sighed. His mood was more despondent than usual...

“ _Is last night still bugging him?”_ Inaho pondered and his gaze momentarily met Slaine's.

They were normal, unlike last night; they were no eerily icy azure orbs.  Instead those eyes seemed dull as if such a flicker – even so supernatural – had become extinguished or smothered.

Slaine grimaced with his expression contorting into annoyance and he looked away, going back about his scholarly ways of sketching the various fauna and flora all about them. At least that was what Inaho thought Slaine was trying to appear to be doing. It was clear something was bothering him.

The magical incantation Inaho had long become accustomed to seeing was evidently sluggish and sloppy in comparison to its typical fluidity and eloquence.

“Slaine,” Inaho addressed after crossing his arms as he stopped where he stood.

Slaine didn't respond and instead remained focused on the berries, which he was crouching before and taking one into his hand.

Inaho inhaled deeply before saying again. He was growing tired of his companion's tantrum.

“Slaine...” Inaho mumbled under his breath as he exhaled.

“What,” Slaine said in a tone of outright irritation. The quill Slaine had been using to write on a scroll via magic even snapped its tip, further illustrating Slaine’s annoyance. Such an outcome irked Slaine even more and the magus stood up, about to stomp his way to Inaho.

Inaho tiredly looked up and waited until his eyebrow rose. He sniffed. Again.

“What is it?” Slaine asked. Inaho ignored and the knight started to take a glance all around, sniffing. “Inaho?”

“ _That smell... We couldn't be...”_ Inaho pondered, now pinching his chin.

“KAIZUKA! For the love of the Vers Empire, out with it! And if it's be- because I smell--”

“Do you smell that?” Inaho interjected.

“...”

Inaho looked at Slaine who was definitely blasé of him. Even more so than before somehow.

“Can you not smell it?”

“... Kaizuka...”

“Salt.”

Slaine blinked; he now was caught off guard, much like Inaho was earlier, and soon started to sniff the air around.

“ _I thought dragons had a more keen sense of smell... Perhaps there is a limit to--”_ Inaho began to infer, only for Slaine to glare back at him.

“I might not be able to control my magic but I definitely try to keep some semblance of being human by ignoring excess sensory information,” Slaine supplied and gazed towards the horizon. “The salty breeze is originating northwest of our current location. We couldn't be near the ocean already so the only alternative I can logically think of--”

Inaho gripped the hilt of his sword and proceeded forward, raising his arm to hint to Slaine to follow behind, cautiously. As the dragon knight walked forward and started to hide behind the foliage. The heavier the salt smell became, voices of men could be heard.

“Hunters?” Slaine pondered aloud.

The dragon knight grimaced and lifted one finger at Slaine to be quiet before pulling out a small retractable telescope from his pouch. Inaho kneeled on one knee and peeked over the bush. Through the telescope, Inaho could see a few meters ahead that there were a group of men wearing weathered cloaks. They had made camp at the clearing down below.

“ _The terrain here seems more mountainous...”_ Inaho observed and began to lift the telescope upward to decipher if they were heading into another area, but caught sight of something that took his breath away.

A man of hair colored like maple and a rugged appearance had walked into the campsite. Like the others, he too wore a weathered gray cloak  but underneath it was plain as day. There was no mistake of it. He was--

Inaho abandoned his telescope and unsheathed his sword. From the corner of his eye, Inaho saw Slaine being pushed back onto the neighboring tree. Upon impact with the tree, Slaine was suspended in midair and a dark cloud was manifesting around him, wrapping to clutch him. The cloud then morphed into the form of chains that clacked each time it encircled Slaine. Oddly, Slaine was not dispelling. Again his eyes had shimmered icy blue and stared at the perpetrator.

The reason became evident after pushing back something that lunged onto Inaho with the hilt of his sword. He scoffed upon seeing the individual that had gotten the jump on them. A magenta-haired girl no older than they held her right palm towards them; she was the magus behind Slaine's immobilization. The spell was nothing Slaine couldn't handle; Slaine should be able to easily overpower her at first glance. It was because the spell was something manageable, Slaine didn't want to provoke her for something far worse. Her eyes glowed much like Slaine's except violent and imbued with a fury within that seemed inconsolable. They glowed so vividly and her very aura was tenebrous and  welcomed creatures of the night, of the Netherworld. The very ground was engrossed in the darkest pitch of black and eyes blood red rose from the shadows, morphing into the form of a dire wolf. One by one a pack of shadow wolves encircled the knight and his magus.

“Dragon,” she snarled as the wolves too growled, heeding her beckon and matching her hostility.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** I'd like to acknowledge and thank Ruenis-sempai for helping me decide on some content concerns I had on this work, and if it isn't already ever so evident -- tyvm Plum/icinks for beta'ing this! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و
> 
> TYVM for reading and hope you enjoyed!


	6. Mirage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A chuckle escaped her. “So that’s how it is… You’re cursed and yet you live. You too are a dragon of virtue.”

**=VI; Mirage=**

-Slaine-

 _“A Dragon… in human form..?”_ Slaine pondered as he began to  dispel the magic cast upon him.

The wind began to pick up, dancing and brushing gently against his foot.

“ _Good_ ,” Slaine told himself. He cautiously cast; he could see the violet eyes brim furiously. Surely the dragon was embroiled in rage and would easily overlook his planned attack.

He realized he was wrong when he saw the dragon smirk and the wolves lunge again onto Inaho. The wind had indeed answered his call but it also listened to the dragon. Howling in Slaine’s ear, a gale hissed akin to the magus’s tone of voice, “ _Death to all dragons..!”_

“ ** _FALBH!”_** Inaho commanded as he swung his sword horizontally, which returned unopposed as the wolves nimbly avoided.

Instead the wolves were pushed back upon Inaho’s concise incantation and some whined as they hit the trunks of the nearby trees. With the countermeasure, Inaho brought his sword back and rested his left hand on its blade, which responded to his touch with engravings glimmering.

“Stand down,” Inaho declared, “Release my comrade.”

The dragon snorted and provokingly waved Slaine around, “You. You think you are in the position to demand things from **me**? You ignorant human!”

“What’s… on… there? Ray..?” One of the hunters queried from afar. The hunters Inaho was observing were closing in on them.

“ _Companions?”_

The violet eyes darted back to him and glared. “ _Don’t even think about such things. You…”_ Her eyes narrowed and her smirk grew. This time she vocalized it instead of through telepathy. A chuckle even escaped her. “So that’s how it is… You’re cursed and yet you live. You too are a dragon of virtue.”

“ _Virtue..?”_ Slaine pondered.

“Oh. This is rich,” The dragon retorted and her shoulders began to tremble; she was trying to hold back a laugh. “You. You know nothing of your existence? Did you foolishly think you’re still human or some hybrid?”

“Rayet--” One of the hunters addressed and appeared to Slaine’s right, behind Inaho.

“Shut up,” The dragon interjected coldly. Her eyes were squarely fixated on Slaine.

“Brigadier Marito,” Inaho identified.

The hunter blinked, pleasantly surprised at the sight of Inaho, and asked, “Kaizuka Junior?”

The potential reunion was cut short by Marito’s companion, who had followed and purposely stood between them. He wore a helmet and his face was covered with worn bandages. The man pointed forward, physically trying to interrupt the two.

“Rayet stop. They’re allies--”

“Enough of your shit, mortal!” Rayet exclaimed and slammed Slaine into the tree. The chains had tightened around him; Slaine gasped for air. He had to disenchant this; there was no point maintaining this charade--

“Yes there is no need to maintain the theatrics, fellow Dragon, Dragon of Aldnoah. In accordance with the decree of the Areash Tribe, I Rayet Areash, daughter of Wolf Areash, sentence you to death!”

“Rayet he’s like us! He was simply following orders and--”

“SILENCE!” Her voice boomed and her human form was entirely consumed by the umbra that oozed from her steps.

She roared as her true form unveiled. Where she stood, her very umbra rushed upward and tethered her, grappling her figure. The cloak gave way, falling to the ground where it did not lay, and a turbulent and ominous wind cast all away besides that in her hold. Her silhouette darkened as her eyes burned in scorn. Her smirk grew wider as her teeth and snout enlarged before the darkness overtook and wings of an otherworldly mauve light took shape, much like the shadow hand holding Slaine. The darkness dissipating, a wyvern of dark byzantium scales manifested. Its claws extended and threatened, scratching the earth and bringing rise to an unbearable screeching. Claws dark as obsidian tore the ground and its very touch poisoned the land, burning and leaving a scent of brimstone. Wings outstretched, the trees were torn apart by their trunks and their very life force was whisked away, leaving nothing alive in their wake and bringing forth more members into death’s dominion.  

Rayet brought Slaine closer. She breathed out of her nostrils small embers of deep violet. The very breath strengthened her hex on Slaine. The magus gasped for air once more. His eyes desperately glowed azure;  his hand now outreaching to the sky as he tried to breathe and a voice echoed in his mind.

Tauntingly it whispered and crawled in his ears, **“Don’t fool yourself, child of man. The power of dragon is not one of man’s control. Surrender. Give in.”**

Rayet was invading his mind. Everything Slaine had tried so hard to cast aside and forget was one by one forced upfront and ravaged in the forms of his deepest fears, bringing rise to the frost from the curse.

**“You know best of all.”**

“ _N-no_ ,” Slaine couldn’t help but beg. He could hear the chains in the deep depths of his mind slip away. The near inaudible whispers of his incantation became louder and louder.

The memory of the golden hair and reaching out for the impossibility filled his vision just as the sensation of a cold bony grasp over his shoulder let itself be known. Helplessly he felt thorns prickle all around him, and that mental presence approached again to his ear. This time it spoke in the dragon knight’s voice.

**“And in truth you simply wanted...”**

The voice sounded entirely wrong. He knew it wasn’t really Inaho’s and yet it rendered him insecure. The voice -- Rayet -- could see through him. Slaine couldn’t entirely ward off the possibility that there may be truth in that poor impersonation; even now…

“ _Stop it_.”

He had yet to discern Inaho’s objective -- why? Why did he do what he has done? What interested  him?

**“You--”**

“STOP IT!” Slaine yelled and glared. The darkness resonated and Slaine’s eyes no longer glowed blue. He tightened his hold on the chains that still bound him and he plunged into the arcane within him.

“I won’t be mere prey to the likes of you!” Slaine antagonized; his human voice morphing into that of his draconic form.

Stalagmites and spikes of ice erupted from where the shadow hand held; the very shadow collapsing in itself and dissipating. The wind around the the coagulating ice was sucked inwards, quickly, seemingly endlessly and eternally until the very icicles were jetted outward. The shadow dragon retreated momentarily. A mist of frost dissipated and loomed, hovering between the shadow dragon and its unveiling opponent. Before the shadow dragon, a being shimmered momentarily in gold and its ghastly yet angelic visage became visible. White like starlight and eyes once blue muddled into a reddish hue met the ominous byzantium and violent violet.

 

-Inaho-

Skies gone gray, air mystified and danger at bay. An unnatural storm had manifested due to the two dragons warring overhead. Hail and lightning clashed relentlessly. The gales had strengthened and the howls pierced through the dragon knight. It mattered not how many layers he had donned; even if he had the tunic and cloak still, he couldn't help his legs buckling and he succumbed to the cold.

"Slaine..." Inaho tried to call out, but the cold had left him frozen. He would only last for a few more moments at this rate.

His state didn't matter. Slaine... Slaine wouldn't last  another second at this rate. He needed to find a way to stop him.

The howls were Slaine's cries. The growing hailstorm was his desperate plea for help and comfort. He seemed so far and the darkness was closing in.

The shadow dragon would not cease its fury and all was becoming bleak. Its magics mixed and entwined with Slaine's arctic spells. The sun no longer gleamed; night seemed to have fallen, and behind every shadow, animosity lurked.

More wolves were soon to close in on him. He needed to reach Slaine. If only--

A shriek from the sky silenced all. The raging winds and the pitter-pattering rain subdued as the white figure up high began to fall.

"Slaine!"

There was not another minute to spare. Inaho bit his lip, making himself bleed to focus on the pain. He forced himself to his feet and bolted to where the fading ice dragon was falling. He didn’t care what the aftereffects were as he stammered through his chattering teeth, citing magic incantations. He tried to cast spells of mobility; some failed; others went uncontrolled. He stumbled yet miraculously somehow stayed afloat as he sped forward upon a gigantic frozen lake.

Crackles of breaking ice trailed behind him wherever he had stepped. In the corner of his remaining eye, he could see the very cracks dance forward ahead of him. Inevitably, he would fall and drown. Again just a matter of moments and he would be a goner, victim to the bone chilling cold.

 _“It does not matter. It does not matter,”_ he continuously recited whenever he could spare the thought.

Inaho outreached his arms. He could see the transparent yet authentic dragon wings reduce and its source descending towards him. The familiar hair like starlight entered his sight and the consequences of what had incurred. The Kvef curse had gone wild. Where human skin should be, ice encased and threatened to coagulate the magus in his entirety. Fibre-like structures snaked past the frozen flesh and  formed patterns normal upon snowflakes, where some had solidified into icicles.

Once near his grasp, Inaho made certain to slow down Slaine’s descent and have him gently land upon his arms. Inaho’s legs again buckled upon contact.

“ARGGGGH!!!” Inaho screamed.

Wherever Inaho touched Slaine, it burned. He clenched his teeth to ignore it and tried to rest Slaine upon his lap, casting a warming spell upon his hand as means to thaw Slaine. Inaho grimaced and he momentarily lost his concentration; freezing water splashed upon his already damp legs, once again flaring Inaho’s senses of how exposed he was to the weather.

“...S...stop…” Slaine said in a weak voice.

Inaho’s eye widened and he grasped Slaine’s hand that tried to reach for him. Slaine’s expression became more distraught and he slowly tried to say something. He didn’t need to speak; Inaho could see in the reflection of Slaine’s eyes the rapid approaching shadow dragon looming in their direction.

“We’ll be fine,” Inaho tried to reassure; it was a risky improvisation.

Slaine was not at all reassured; he could see the hesitation and fear in Inaho. Little did Slaine know the fear was not for the seemingly imminent doom but rather for Slaine’s well-being.

The Shadow Dragon cried as it opened its mouth, a dragon breath of the most potent magic rushing forward, towards them.

“ ** _IGNITE!”_** Inaho yelled, and the magic incantations he had long since recited when he bolted through the lake alit its orange glow.

The beam of shadow magick retreated from the growing fire that surrounded Slaine and Inaho. Slaine cried as the fire engulfed them. Inaho hugged him closely as the very glacier they were on instantly sublimated into water and the two fell into the depths of the lake.

…

_???_

_???_

Inaho coughed and clenched his teeth as he hugged his side and rolled onto his back. He opened his eyes and frequently blinked, trying to adjust to the darkness while getting himself up.

With the fire spell, his clothes had become dry… thankfully not also reduced to ashes, but… Inaho’s hands tightened when recollecting Slaine’s cries as the ice collapsed underneath them.

“Slaine!” Inaho realized when looking around.

He struggled to stand and hobbled as his right leg seemed compromised in some manner, but he couldn’t spare the time to properly assess. He needed to find his companion.

Inaho walked through the darkness, which he became accustomed to the further he headed down the corridor, and noticed that where he leaned  with his right forearm, the entire area was made of ice. Really _ancient_ ice. Wherever Slaine and Inaho had landed, the area had been frozen for an unspeakably long length of time and most of all, undisturbed. Inaho cautiously gazed upward to the ceiling and squinted, trying to see if there was any degradation in  the infrastructure since their plummet; it was either too far or too dark for him to properly gauge.

“Ugh,” Inaho groaned and shut his eyes, defending them with his free hand.

The corridor had ended at a pair of double doors he pushed open, and blinding light illuminated the room Inaho entered. Again his eyes needed to adjust to the brightness;  from above he could see that the sun from the surface of the lake somehow reached this very room. Looking around him, the room was wide, spacious and most of all… ornate. Pillars of ice were purposely decorated, seamlessly integrated with the very morphology of snowflake patterns, comprising the back walls and the staircase that split into two, towards the upper floor.

What was once dark and azure, was now bright and white. Wherever Inaho stepped no longer threatened to crack and break, but chimed as if the ice was the very tile for the flooring. Inaho slowly continued; he didn’t want to chance it.

 _“I should turn back,”_ he thought; Slaine couldn’t have passed here, there being no recent use of the atrium... yet his feet carried him forward. _Something_ urged him; _something_ had caught his eye overhead where the staircase split.

“ _Ah,_ ” he realized and gawked at the seemingly plain ice wall.

From afar, the wall looked barren, but in truth… the very room was simply frozen over; the ice was not intentional… the fact that the ice seemed to not disturb what laid underneath was what made it supernatural. What had caught his eye was a painting that hung on the wall.

And in the reflection of the ice coated painting, Inaho met a pair of dissimilarly colored eyes. With a shaky breath, he rested his now trembling left hand upon his left eye; there should be nothing there, and yet there was. In between his spread fingers, a turquoise eye met his gaze. It too matched the eyes belonging to the woman portrayed in the painting.

 

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** I apologize for the delay but hopefully this chapter was worth the wait! Like last chapter, I would like to again thank Ruenis-sempai and Plum-obaachan for looking over this. However... for this particular chapter, i would also like to extend my thanks to [yui-minatsuki](http://archiveofourown.org/users/yui_minatsuki/pseuds/yui_minatsuki), who is also another AZ writer AND an artist. ;A; The painting was done by her hand and my goodness did she exceed my wildest dreams! Thanks so much and please check out her other artwork at: [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/naya10801), [Deviantart](http://yui-minatsuki.deviantart.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/naya10801)
> 
> Thank you very much for reading and your continued support!


	7. Fog

-Inaho-

_???_

_Day ??? Outside Vers Empire_

_Day ??? in ???_

“Mi...” A muffled, mumbled voice echoed.

Something sounded off. _"There should be footsteps with that voice... it's getting louder... closer,”_ Inaho gauged and braced himself, forcing his injured leg to abide for him to stand in a ready stance.

The double doors, which he had closed behind him when he entered, burst open. Initially there seemed to be nothing, yet the longer Inaho looked, the more he could see dust from the ground become disturbed where steps had been made.

“Milord! Milord!” The disembodied continued to cry, ecstatically and seemingly at the brink of tears, Inaho imagined.

The steps rushed up the stairs; Inaho stood his ground and soon his mismatching eyes met surprised eyes of faded black, much like ink dried on parchment. They belonged to a taller and slightly older man compared to Inaho. The man was definitely not of the Vers Empire, let alone of the living. It was clear he was a magus with the typical attire of a long robe and matching sleeves, but the emblazoned emblems were foreign to Inaho. If anything, the emblems resembled speckles and sparkles of light, possibly forming constellations on the indigo fabric, which mimicked the night sky.

“ _I've never seen those garments before...”_ Inaho noted, and immediately used the blade of his sword as a shield.

The man gasped before becoming agitated.. He stomped his transparent foot and, waving his left fist, cast a strong gust of wind. To accent the gale, the man’s long sleeves shimmered silver and  were razor sharp, much like a dagger, and as a joint effort they broke through Inaho’s magical shield and scratched his cheek.

“You-- you're not Milord! Why! Why do you bare his crest!?” The man demanded.

He did not allow Inaho a moment to breathe; instead he continued his assailment upon Inaho with sequential sharp gales, much like ribbons of unknown length, until one gale wrapped Inaho and pulled him forward.

“ _There!”_ Inaho identified as his opportunity of attack and swung his blade vertically upon the ghost.

The man's brow became even more crossed, disappointed at Inaho's maneuver, and responded with a spin of a larger gale, arguably a wall of wind to repel Inaho back. Unknown to both of them, however, Inaho's sword illuminated an azure flame that spread. The escaping embers traced into a fancy font, resembling calligraphy, which blurred into more flames and seared the nearby ice, immediately giving rise to steam.

“Slaine...” Inaho blurted, taken by surprise.

Inaho shook his head as he found himself slacking in his stance, but reconsidered when seeing that the man no longer seemed hostile. Instead, and for some unknown reason... some tinge, Inaho allowed his cheeks to be caressed by the taller man, who had tears falling from his cheeks. Although the man was a ghost, there was substance where they touched.

“Milord... Milord Slaine... So you have returned...” The man said in the most gentle tone Inaho had ever heard.

Upon hearing such words, Inaho rose his brow in confusion and a migraine began to make itself known. Thoughts – thoughts he identified as not his – danced in his mind:

“ _You can trust this person.”_

_"He cares for me.”_

_“He's...”_

A tear trailed down Inaho's left cheek unbeknownst to him, until the man embraced Inaho and reassured, “Worry not, Milord. I'll see to it. Just rest.”

A moment passed and Inaho caught himself having momentarily slumped, almost collapsing to the floor, but the apparition provided some support. Inaho reached for his left temple and could see his sword had returned to normal.

“ _Slaine must have...”_

“Kaizuka Inaho was it?” The apparition asked after helping Inaho back on his feet, and seemed to inspect the dragon knight more closely. His eyes narrowed when looking over Inaho's injured leg.

“...Yes... I assume--”

The apparition knelt and rested its ghostly hand gently on the thigh of Inaho’s injured leg. A warm light pulsated from the young man's hand; he was healing Inaho's leg.

“Milord provided a name and tried to defend you. You will have to explain what has rendered Milord to this state, but for the time being, you need to rest,” The man went, and without Inaho's permission, picked him up by placing an arm under his legs and another resting on his back.

The ghost put Inaho over his shoulder and proceeded up one of the staircases.

“Wait,” Inaho curtly commanded, to which the ghost obliged but remained quiet. “What has become of Slaine? And what is your relation to him?”

The young man sighed, resuming his previous task, and then Inaho noted they were proceeding through a similarly ornate hallway much like the atrium. Gazing to the walls, Inaho noticed as they walked the ice that had frozen over all of the inside whisking away and the air becoming damp. The ice was gently being melted and the room, warmer. And underneath the ice, murals vividly decorated were displayed upon the very halls they passed. Overhead and every few steps, a once-dusty lamp lit with a luminosity much akin to a firefly's light.

With the newfound light, the murals seemed to depict a vast sky at the cusp of sunset where day met night and the descending rays of the sun accented diamond and teardrop-like structures, making them twinkle much like stars. Such structures further made this a metaphor when they varied in size and filled the murals much like the stars covered the night sky.

“ _He must be making this more hospitable for me...”_ Inaho tried to reason.

“Milord has been reduced to his spiritual form--”

Inaho tried to stand up. The apparition could tell Inaho had become tense and immediately forced Inaho to relax upon his shoulder.

“As a Dragon Magus, his very aether is his existence and whatever transpired as of late has weathered him to such a state.”

Inaho grit his teeth in frustration, a fist shaking. “My _fire--”_ He assumed.

“I also sense the Versian Curse upon his mana... that too could have finally taken its toll...” The apparition continued, yet in a more forlorn, remorse tone.

“Versian... Curse? You are mistaken; Slaine was cursed by the Kvef--”

The apparition stopped and turned to face Inaho squarely; the ghost's expression was absolute indignation. It was as if Inaho had offended the man.

“I beg to differ. To think Milord was forced to reside in an imbecile such as you. Do you not realize where you are?”

Inaho remained silent and instead gazed at the room they clearly were stopping at. The room gave a very clean air and encompassed various fountains and canals of water, continuously pouring in from the ceiling. There was no manmade source of light – no lamp – and instead, floating orbs of light, behaving much like fireflies, lit the room to some degree; for the most part, the room seemed rather dark.

Again the ghost sighed, still disappointed, and continued towards the center of the dim room, where he placed Inaho down.

“ _A bed..? In the center of?”_ Inaho discerned.

After situating Inaho on the bed, the apparition crossed his arms and spoke, “This is the Room of Meditation. The Royal Family and Sage had utilized this room when rejuvenating their mana. I presume this will help Milord heal faster, so I will hope you are in agreement with this.”

Inaho nodded and grasped the blanket. The blanket showed no sign of dust, rather it was the smoothest silk he had ever felt and warm, warm as if fresh from the wash.

“I'll make preparations for something to eat. For the meantime, I imagine you are exhausted... Kaizuka... Inaho.”

“Inaho is fine,” Inaho offered and peered upward to the helpful apparition. _“He must have been a butler or servant in this castle in the past...”_

 _“He was... and is...”_ Someone answered.

“ _Slaine..?”_ Inaho pondered, now perplexed at the untimely reply.

The apparition scoffed and nodded before excusing himself, “Then have a good night, Inaho.”

And the apparition proceeded back to the entrance of the room, but before grasping the door handle, Inaho spoke... a thought resonating with him, “Thank you Harklight-san.”

Immediately Inaho covered his mouth, even more confused as to what was overcoming him. Whatever the case, it made the ghost brusquely turn back and an even more remorseful expression wreathed its face. A heartbreaking smile formed on its face and Harklight spoke in the gentlest of tones, “Of course Milord... Welcome home. And to you Kaizuka Inaho, welcome to Himnariki, once considered the Heaven of Gaia.”

“Himnariki..? That sounds a part of the K--”

Harklight nodded, excitedly interrupting Inaho. “Yes. This was the homeland of the Kvef.”

 

  _Ruins of Himnariki- Entryway_

_Day 36 Outside Vers Empire_

_Day 21 in the Ruins_

Inaho sighed as he leaned against the nearby wall; three weeks had passed yet only marginally had his body become less sluggish and more cooperative to wander the ruins. However he was still far too weak and disoriented to sustain himself, and thus he was in this current predicament -- relying on a metaphysical entity, Harklight. To be dependent on another was… troublesome to say the least and to worsen the situation, Inaho neither knew much more about the ghost magus nor Slaine’s recovery. The latter of which was a concern Harklight now chose after weeks of silence to address, and thus they stood outside the entryway to the outside world from Himnariki.

 _“Even if I was fully healed, leaving this place to the surface where the other dragon resides… is unwise.”_ Inaho pondered before meeting the stern gaze of Harklight.

“You should have died, Kaizuka Inaho, but Milord saved you,” Harklight stated.

“If it was healing magic he would not have been reduced to this aetherial state. I have seen him use such magic before and he’s--”

“I am fully aware of Lord Slaine’s gift in magic, Inaho. However there is only so much one can do with so little time. If what you’ve told me is true, it is miraculous how fast you healed and survived such grievous wounds. Igniting yourself on fire and plunging through thousands of feet of cold water here…” Harklight elaborated with his voice trailing off at the end.

“... You said residing in the Room of Meditation will help Slaine regain his mana, his ability to return to his corporeal form… if my wounds were as serious as you say… how long would it take Slaine to recover?” Inaho asked.

Harklight remained silent and looked at Inaho with his faded black eyes. He was contemplating how to respond.

“You’ve spoken of healing magic. Do you not see what actual magic Milord had used?”

The ghostly magus approached and once more caressed Inaho’s left temple. The turquoise dragon eye remained and showed no signs of disappearing.

“Transmutation.”

“Yes… he used his own existence to heal your wounds. In time they’ve started to separate, but for how long it’s been… I’m uncertain of Milord’s wounds. Do you understand now?”

The apparition released his hold of the dragon knight and walked down the hallway. It was uncertain when… perhaps even if Slaine would return.

“He’ll return… he’s too stubborn,” Inaho mumbled to himself before going down the hallway in the opposite direction of Harklight.

***

_Day 35 in the Ruins_

“You shouldn’t push yourself too hard now,” Harklight warned and yanked Inaho back onto the entryway.

Inaho coughed and caught his breath. He grimaced at his still weakened state.

Harklight crossed his arms, frowning at the obviously disgruntled dragon knight. “Please consider Milord, Kaizuka Inaho.”

“I… am” Inaho refuted; he still found his breathing laborious. “It has been far too quiet… on the surface… there was a dragon--”

“The Dragon of Patience has long retreated back whence it came with its entourage,” Harklight quickly dismissed before casting a spell on Inaho to hastily dry the drenched dragon knight. The ghost magus amused himself as he mumbled, “although more accurately, the Dragon of Wrath.”

“Wrath?” Inaho repeated.

Harklight’s brow rose and once more he shook his head in disappointment. “How much has the Vers Empire cast  our land’s heritage into the dark?”

“How long ago did Himnariki fall to Vers as you claim?” Inaho questioned.

“How… long?” Harklight asked back in a rather baffled voice. He shook his head again and walked down the corridor. “Perhaps the library and archives would be a better place to spend your time, Kaizuka.”

***

_Archives of Himnariki Castle_

_Day 72 in the Ruins_

Another book closed shut and Inaho stood from the desk but without the book. He instead removed a notebook from his pocket and opened to the most recent page he had jotted on. With a quill still in his other hand, Inaho wrote another word as he walked down a path he had routinely walked recently.

Momentarily Inaho walked out of the archives and back into the long hallways that eventually led to the atrium that Inaho had first entered. The atrium was not his destination; instead, the dragon knight recited the words from his notebook and correspondingly, glyphs long faded on the wallpaper glimmered gold, much like a magical calligraphy Inaho had once seen before.

 **“Dyggðir.”** Inaho recited as he thought of the equivalent, “ _Virtues._ ”

In the corner of his eye, he could see the mural on the wall restore around the illuminating word. The faded and damp paint shimmered much like Harklight’s sleeves had and the light extended outward. A murky fog had risen from the word; like nebulae it wandered outward haphazardly and seemingly randomly, and wherever it  touched, the paint shone like a newborn star.

At each corner of the mural, the nebula-like mist dissipated upon reaching seven pairs of jewels, which lit upon contact.

“ _Not this time,”_ Inaho declared and continued verbalizing his findings. Too many days in the past had the arcane mural fallen silent and kept its secrets within. Today was the day he would uncover the heritage Harklight proudly boasted yet would not tell, thinking only those worthy should learn of its secrets. Such secrets after all… would make the heavens fall.

Like rapid fire, Inaho said the words aloud one after the other. ““Hófsemi! “Góðvild!”

The two civilizations were representations of the virtues temperance and kindness. Whether or not they yielded to Inaho’s call, he could not discern. Two pairs of gems momentarily glowed only to once more fade and dull.

“ **Hreinleiki.”** “ _Purity.”_

Orbs of diamond sparkled. White light danced and traced a faded ink painting of a long snake -- no -- that of a draconic creature. It surely was a dragon yet with a different anatomy. Unlike Slaine’s dragon form, there were no wings, yet long ear-like structures in the form of angelic wings accompanied golden horns. Beneath the dragon, people and creatures known for their sanctity knelt, surely praying and paying their respect. The name of such a civilization had long been forgotten where even the texts of the Kvef bore no record.

 **“Áreiðan...leikakönnun,”** Inaho addressed and turned to a pair of Beryl gemstones. “ _Diligence.”_

Like fireworks, the orange light sparked and bursted spontaneously throughout its part of the tapestry. At each momentary glow, a dragon much like the previous slithered and snaked its way in the shadows of the aged tapestry. Similarly, the civilization’s identity had been lost in the archives, yet the figures the dragon surrounded and accompanied resembled farmers, which routinely tended to their lands and cared for their wildstock.

 **“Þolinmæði.”** _“Patience.”_

The amethyst gems glimmered and like the previous dragons, its outline too shone its matching shade. The dragon resembled that of the dragon magus called Rayet. Mauve and byzantium in color, the dragon’s wings were spread and in its majestic beauty, shades stood at its feet in the form of people clad in knightly armament, lances and claymores at hand.

“ _The Areash people, known for their militaristic organization yet nomadic way of life. They were hunters of the strongest beasts known to the land. United they stood and through their combined strength, even the weakest of poisons brings down the most ferocious of foes.”_ Inaho recollected the description of the fallen civilization.

 **“Góð… gerð… arstarf.”** _“Charity.”_

Red as blood, the eyes of a burgundy and maroon dragon glared back at Inaho’s matching one crimson eye. Even without ever laying eyes on such a mythical beast, Inaho could identify without a shadow of doubt which civilization the dragon represented -- the Vers Empire. Like his empire’s coat of arms, thirty-seven magi stood at attention at either side of the red dragon.

Last but not least, and similar to the dragon of charity, Inaho knew the identity of the remaining pair of unlit crystals.

 **“Auðmýkt,”** he couldn’t help but whisper in anticipation.

As if it was yesterday, Inaho could recollect the first time he had laid eyes on the very same azure orbs. Once lit, the gems revealed to be azurite and the sound of cracking ice filled Inaho’s ears. For a moment, Inaho considered looking at his surroundings, fearing perhaps today was the day the Shadow Dragon would reach them. He did not give into such an urge; he could not cast his gaze away from the unveiling artwork. Like cracks on ice, the jagged lines spread and branched into more, thinner lines, which vanished shortly after into the distant parts of the fabric. At such far points the thin lines seemed to dim, only for the light to return back to the origin before being stopped halfway and accumulating into glimmering rhombi, as if they were spinning orbs of stardust.

The tapestry remained dark as night and rendered the forming spectacle like stars levitating in the dark corridor where Inaho stood wordless at the sight. The nebulae mist returned and served much like the Bifrost, a bridge between these rhombi of light. This was a scene Inaho had seen throughout the ruined castle, and for certain was Himinariki’s original landscape. Overhead, the azurite orbs looked down, most likely in a heartwarming manner, with a rising sun located at the bosom of the dragon, whose outline formed amongst the star-like lights like a constellation.

“Slaine…” Inaho blurted, and grimaced when recollecting the dragon magus who had yet to return. Inaho reached for his left eye but paused.

Something within the restored tapestry moved oddly. It was the Dragon of Charity, the dragon of the Vers Empire, that moved. Dread and fear climbed up Inaho’s spine at seeing the dragon raise its head upward to the sky and its reddish scales brusquely turn black like obsidian while it gave off a yellowish aura, perhaps mimicking that of brimstones and sulfur. The sky turned eerie red as dragon breath spread, burning the tapestry and immediately bringing it back to its original, if not worsened state.

The other dragons’ gems flickered in light before cracking as the flame reached their respective spots. One by one like a parchment in fire, all trace of each dragon and its civilization were effectively erased from the tapestry.

Inaho raised his left hand towards the tapestry and reached for the farthest part from the fire -- Slaine’s dragon -- and cast a spell, “ **Reothadh!”**

Correspondingly, a wave of water spread from where Inaho touched the tapestry and froze into ice, but upon impact with the fire, it instantly turned into steam. Inaho tried again to cast another spell, yet the effort was fruitless. It was all in vain; after all, this was history and it could no longer be changed. Similar to before with the Vers Dragon, the Dragon of Humility acted unnaturally and reacted. Raising its wing closest to the fire, it shielded its bosom and as the fire burnt away all around, the stardust unraveled and crumbled into rubble and dust. The same catastrophe seemed to befall Himnariki yet a glimmer caught Inaho’s eye. Although the Kvef Dragon melted away, its essence did not sublime into steam, instead raining, trailing downward to the bottom of the tapestry… one tear drop remained and a single humanoid creature rested on the ground.

Speechless at what had just occurred, Inaho found himself kneeling down to the last remaining detail of the arcane tapestry, only to be caught by surprise by Harklight.

“It’s as you suspect, Kaizuka. At the price of her people and kingdom, Milord’s mother Queen Celestia protected the last uncorrupted dragon of the land. Only another dragon can match the caliber of a fallen dragon.”

“And your objective… no… the objective of the Kvef was to bring an end to the Dragon Age. Slaine alone could not achieve this… you have more allies among the Versian Counsel.”

“That is correct. He also was our commanding magus before going undercover when the suspicions of the betrayal was more evident.”

“Saazbaum.”

“I had underestimated you, Kaizuka Inaho. If there is one thing I could agree with the Vers Empire, it was appointing you as Slaine’s Dragon Knight. Will  you not help us in our cause?”

Inaho fell silent and stared back at the seeming abyss of Harklight’s gaze. Madness? Revenge? Resolve? He could not determine what to make of it, yet the growing heartache and pain provided all he needed to know. Whatever laid dormant in that abyss, it was something of which Slaine was unaware and something kept away from Slaine.

But…

Saying no was not an option. Again being dependent on someone was a liability and a weakness.

“I would rather discuss this with Slaine.”

Harklight’s eyes narrowed before he closed them and bowed. A smile formed upon his lips. “You are correct. Only Slaine can begin our resurgence.”

For now, Inaho had managed to stall, but only time would tell what awaited upon the horizon.

 


	8. Haze

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"I promise."**

**=VIII; Haze=**

-Slaine-

_???_

_???_

_???_

Again he was falling, submerging into the darker depths of water…. A lake?

“ _Lake?”_ Slaine caught himself concluding something.  
  
It had always been some plunge into water whenever he couldn’t return to reality and suffered overexposure and excess toxification of magic. However identifying this body of water as a lake… oddly felt right. It felt like he _knew_ for certain, without a doubt he was falling into the bottom of a lake.

Why?

And either case, how many more times was he going to plunge into this bottomless abyss?

Slaine grimaced, holding back a sob and his breath out of old habit. The light of the sun reflected and dimmed the further away he became. Desperately, Slaine reached out for the fading light, only to return empty handed and void of any hope, any warmth.

_A squeeze. A nudge._

He felt an awkward sensation around  his shoulders. Slaine shuddered and tried to shake off the feeling.

Cold.

Slaine sighed in relief once he landed on his feet, having reached the bottom of the lake and coughed. Bubbles escaped his mouth vehemently. He knew he should have felt water invade his nasal passages, yet there was none; this was a dream, some hallucination on his part. Slaine reached for his chest and tried to calm himself, reminding himself of such truth.

Gazing upward again,  he observed the rays of the sun above. They remained unchanged. Again it was another sign that none of this was real.

He tightened his hand into a fist, averting his gaze, and mumbled to himself, “How many more times must I repeat this sequence?”

A murmur filled his ears. Slaine braced himself; his very being shook and shivered from the vibrations of the murmur. He surveyed his surroundings for the source.

“ _Wh-what caused that? A whale?”_ Slaine pondered, only to find no possible explanation besides that perhaps it was again his imagination.

Frowning, Slaine straightened his posture, no longer withdrawing into himself but evermore wary. Whatever caused it, it must still be around.

_Crinkle…_

_Crack…_

_Shhh…_

“ _Maybe… maybe I’m finally going to be able to wake up from this… this is not like before,”_ Slaine considered, and in some ways reassured himself to calm his increasing anxiousness. He chuckled when remembering his companion, the useless and dumbfounded Kaizuka Inaho. “ _What in the world could he be doing to leave me like this?”_

Slaine raised his head and gazed ahead. The water current had become turbulent but specifically, unnaturally directional. It was as if the water current was beckoning him forward. He took the hint and followed, as if he had any choice, but he did not let his guard down. Slaine readied his left hand, a small aura illuminating from it. To some it might seem a simple light spell, but it was far more: a light that would not relent even in the darkest of night. The light was his sword and his shield;  his hope and might.

As he quietly walked alongside the guiding current, the further along he went, the more the water produced the shimmering and cackling sounds he had heard before. He shuddered; the memory of the Kvef Curse eerily crept into the forefront of his mind. Slaine tried to physically shake it off by shaking his head, only to naught. The cackling became louder and louder; the water more and more resembled an ice chasm… soon Slaine couldn’t tell if he was underwater or back at the glacier where he was first cursed.

**_“Sur….”_ **

The thrum again echoed and reverberated around Slaine; however this time the very ice surrounding Slaine shook. It was as if it had evolved into a shockwave. Cracks traced, and laced the chasms. Slaine’s very reflections on the ice became uneven and for a moment--

Slaine’s breath hitched when seeing his reflection momentarily disappear. A woman sharing his appearance gazed with tearing eyes and slowly brought her arms towards him, trying to reach out to him, only to dissipate, evaporate into water vapor and mist before his eyes. He could have sworn the very visage was leaving the ice.

His heart lunged as his legs gave way.

Cold.

Freezing.

Debilitating.

Slaine’s eyes watered and he bent forward. It was so cold. It was so… **_Kvef_ **.

He couldn’t help but embrace and rock himself on the ground. Slaine began to stammer a spell to warm himself. Anything. _Anything_. He was freezing. So bone-chilling cold.

“ _Co-come on… wake up.”_ Slaine begged and wept. He must be suffering the frost in his sleep. “ _Ina…_ ” Slaine began to mumble the knight’s name.

The awkward nudging feeling returned, but unlike before, it was accompanied by the murmuring. Slaine whimpered and sobbed. The vibration was not helping; the shakes affected his very being. It was too much.

“Why. Why won’t I wake up!!!” Slaine yelled and hiccupped between his weeps… not for long thankfully.

The sensation was becoming firmer… warmer…. reassuring…

Slaine knew what it was, what was causing it.

“Inaho…” Slaine realized. The sensation manifested as fireflies, orbs of light that surrounded Slaine. They gave an impression much like the knight; they enveloped Slaine  in a cordial light.

The murmurs became more audible with each iteration.

“Surein… Slaine…”

“Wake up…”

“I’m here.”

“Every… everything will be all right.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I promised.”

Slaine exhaled deeply; he focused on the feeling.

“ _That-that stupid orange-egg fixated fool…”_ Slaine humored and smiled to himself.

The paralysis of the frigidness dulled and Slaine shakily got to his feet. He was stopped, however, when finding a celeste green dress before him. Slowly, hesitantly, shyly Slaine peered upward to a pair of matching turquoise eyes. Long platinum hair fell from the woman’s shoulders and approached him. Her presence was nostalgic… pleasant…

Slaine’s eyes again watered; the woman knelt and with her free hand wiped his tears.

“My son… you’ve returned. You’ve come home,” The woman said in as firm a voice she could muster; her composure crumbled.

Her staff of spectral light fell, jingling against their sides when the woman covered her face and wept.

“Mom…” Slaine recognized and went to caress her cheek, only to see his hand go through her.

She removed her hands from her face when seeing his hand and noticed his poor attempt of holding back a sniffle. His mother smiled gently, bringing her staff to her lap. It was she that succeeded in returning the gesture.

Her hand against his cheek glowed a matching golden luminosity. She too shared the same magic Slaine used. His mother motioned to speak, but there were no sounds to her words. Slaine’s eyes widened for a moment, only to find himself falling forward. Everything had become white. Warm. Painfully, comfortably cozy.

…

_Home_

_???_

_???_

“Ugh…” Slaine grumbled and adjusted himself, nuzzling and nestling his head more into the cusp of warmth.

His senses were a blur and any attempts to focus were poor. It was nauseating to try; he felt terrible… terribly fuzzy. He just wanted to--

Slaine winced and squinted when realizing he was cuddling against someone. Not just anyone. That idiot. Kaizuka Inaho.

_“What is wrong with me to--”_ Slaine berated himself as he stumbled, struggling to distance himself from Inaho but instead meeting resistance.

Inaho wouldn’t let him go;  he tightened his hold around Slaine’s back. Now, Slaine could identify Inaho’s secure embrace on him; an arm wrapped around his waist and the other brushed the back of his head, calmly running fingers through Slaine’s hair… the gesture was not helping Slaine at all to simply relax and let this all go.

“Kai…” Slaine tried to speak yet the nausea worsened and he snuggled even more into Inaho’s chest, pushing his forehead even more.  “Ugh…”

“Don’t. Just rest,” Inaho curtly and concisely ordered.

It only riled Slaine even more and against the magus’s better judgment, Slaine headbutted into Inaho’s chin. “Do-don’t tell me what to do. Ow!..”

Slaine could feel his cheeks flush and he weakened, this time managing to rest his head on the pillow where he could see Inaho. The magus blinked, tiredly surprised. Two eyes. Two eyes were peering back at him. Inaho’s hair was also longer… and so was his, reflecting back from Inaho’s mismatched eyes. Slaine tried to sit up, but only collapsed even more deeply into Inaho’s hug.

One of Inaho’s eyes matched his… and had the pupil of a dragon.

“Kai… Kaizuka your eye--”

Inaho sighed and brought Slaine even closer. “It’s yours.”

“How?”

Slaine closed his eyes; they were becoming heavy especially when Inaho resumed his gentle brush on Slaine’s hair.

“C… Could you… please… stop… th… that?” Slaine tried to resist.

“No. You’re getting worked up again. Harklight nearly banned eggs for breakfast from last time.”

“... Hark… light?”

“... Nonetheless, my eggs.”

“... It’s your fault.”

“I know.”

“... _He’s not going to refute?”_  Slaine questioned to himself; his brow contorted in perplexity. He sighed yet refused to simply give in… what if he was to fall asleep  into that dream again? Even if his mother…

“Your eye… if it’s mine… then… why do… I…” Slaine tried to ask and slowly he recollected what happened last. The searing flames from Inaho’s spell burned without respite. The fires only grew and the pain became blinding, excruciating as the fire incinerated him. At the time, Slaine felt like he was melting and going to die, but in truth the flames would -- even if Slaine was cursed -- not detrimentally hurt him, for he fundamentally was aether and even then still had some semblance of his dragon scales from his dragon form…. Inaho, on the other hand, was still human.

Inaho would not have survived his own spell yet he…

“ _That awkward sensation from earlier…”_ Slaine remembered from the dream. It was real.

As they had plunged into the ice cold water, Inaho had held onto him in an attempt to shield him from the perilous shadow and poisonous dragon breath that rained from above. The dragon knight had not at all considered his own self-preservation.

“You protected me,” Inaho supplied after a long silence. “Far too much.”

“Same… to you… you would have…” Slaine couldn’t say more. He didn’t want to remember it. Inaho was literally melting… whisking away before Slaine’s eyes.

“But I think you have something else you’ve been meaning to ask me.”

Slaine groaned and looked away, burying his head deeper into the covers and somewhat away from Inaho.

“Why am I interested in you?” Inaho verbalized it. Always and without fail, the knight brought forth matters that troubled his magus.

And Slaine could neither hide from nor deceive him. His hands that had been grasping at Inaho’s tunic trembled upon hearing Inaho’s question.

“Because I want to understand you.”

Slaine blinked. “I… don’t understand…”

“I want to understand the one who sacrificed everything for a kingdom that had taken just as much from you.”

“Taken..? What do you mean..?” Slaine desperately asked, warding off the growing lethargy.

He noticed Inaho grimace slightly when looking somewhere with the corner of his eye. It was at this time Slaine began to notice his surroundings. The sounds from earlier, from his dream, were the rushing water all around. Fountains of water seemingly eternally flowed wherever Slaine could see, but… as he observed longer, he began to see some fountains were damaged… _recently so._ Furthermore, some of the water was freezing; others were evaporating.

“What… is…”

“Slaine… please rest. I’ll explain everything later.”

“Not later. Now. If I--”

Slaine stopped when hearing one of the marble fountains collapse, and more cracking.

“Slaine…” Inaho chimed, and now  withdrew his hand from Slaine’s head, grabbing hold of one of Slaine’s hands clinging to Inaho’s shirt. Inaho’s hand was unnaturally pleasant to the touch.

The urge to sleep was becoming overbearing and Slaine leaned on Inaho.

“Fine… just… d...on…”

**“I promise.”**

“ _I promise…”_ were the words his mother had spoken, Slaine tiredly recollected. The dream had started to fade from his memories, yet those words… a memory long buried loomed to the top when he once again felt another spell of slumber begin.

“ _I promise we’ll meet again. As long as they live… as long as you live Slaine, anything is possible in the future. So until then… please, forget. Forget, my young Dragon child.”_

 

**_-TBC_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** I would like to extend my thanks to the continued support from Ruenis-sempai and Plum-obaachan for helping me make certain the content and grammar of this does not lead to an early meltdown to this winter wonderland. :) 
> 
> If you've made it this far and/or commented, thank you. Thank you very much for reading and your time. This is definitely a time where words I feel does not enough justice to convey my gratitude. ;_;


	9. Hail

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“What more must I do to convey my desperation?"_

**=IX; Hail=  
**

-Slaine-

_Himnariki Castle: Chamber of Meditation_

_???_

_???_

 

“A perfect fit…” Slaine murmured when he had finished putting on the clothes Inaho offered.

Unlike his attire from the Vers Empire, the clothes definitely considered his measurements to the finest detail. No fabric was excess and it considered when he would transform into his dragon form. He gazed at the midnight blue robe where he could see an encryption weaved into each stitch; they were glyphs for interlocking and restoring the fabric if ever its wearer tore it asunder.

Slaine beamed and rested his left hand over his chest. “Kaizuka, my thanks for you making these.”

“The gratitude is due to Harklight,” Kaizuka corrected before standing up and approaching Slaine. The knight crossed his arms and seemed more wary than before. “Are you feeling alright?”

Slaine’s brow contorted at the question.

“You’re not, are you?”

He couldn’t hide from the knight, especially now that it was more obvious to Slaine their bond was more intricate and stronger than before. In his haste of preventing Inaho’s fate, Slaine had utilized transmutation magic as there was nothing else he could think of that would have kept up with the rapid degradation Inaho was exposed to with his own fire magic. And because of that transmutation, their mana had become interlinked and, much to Slaine’s displeasure, he was more attuned to his than the typical magi. It did not seem to trouble or surprise Inaho considering his comment on the aether currents the last time Slaine had transformed into a dragon with him on his back.

“... No…” Slaine shamefully answered. Something was different with his mana than before. Truth be told, he felt more empowered… excessively and dangerously so.

“ _Could this bond be causing Inaho’s mana to flow into me..? The Versian curse already is…”_ Slaine halted the thought and weakly smiled, trying to reassure Inaho to no avail. “It’ll pass I believe…”

Inaho fell silent as he seemed to debate something, but quickly reached a conclusion, extending his forearm once more to Slaine. “Harklight had foreseen this. I think it’ll be ill-advised to delay any longer.”

Slaine sighed and, to his dismay, couldn’t help but accept Inaho’s aid. He felt well enough to leave bed. However his stamina was nonexistent after a few steps out of the bed they had shared. The wiser decision would have been to return to bed, yet the curiosity was becoming more and more irresistible. Inaho had yet to tell him anything of where they were or how long it had been since their arrival.

“Speaking of Harklight… where is he?” Slaine questioned as he eagerly looked outside the windows they passed. Fish and plants unknown to him wondered outside, but more so, the very building they were in. The infrastructure was structurally sound enough to reside underwater when normally the pressure should crush it to nothing..

“He went to confirm  some things and I had asked him to run a few errands while he was above surface,” Inaho supplied.

“Errands… for you? You haven’t left here either?”

“No. When we were first arrived, I was bedridden for a few weeks--”

“Few weeks..?”

Inaho had stopped leading him down the long passageway, and now before Slaine were large, decorated doors, which were coated in ice.

“Harklight informed me that from this point forward, you’ll have to enter the room on your own. However from what I’m told, you only need to proceed to the altar on the other side of the room.”

“Altar?” Slaine repeated.

Slaine released his hold from Inaho, who then returned his forearm to his side. “What are you talking about, Kaizuka? You’ve yet to explain to me what has transpired, let alone where we are--”

The knight closed his eyes. “She’ll inform you.”

**...**

Splinters and tendrils of cold pierced through Slaine’s heart the instant the doors closed behind him. He could not recollect walking past Inaho yet he felt propelled to enter.

 _“Not now… not the frost,”_ Slaine grimaced and prayed as he grasped his chest.

He tried to calm his restless heart with no success. Water washed over his toes. Eerily it scared him with the sudden temperature drop. How normal the sensation should be yet unnerving it was. Before him was ice as far as his eyes could see. He should be in a narrow room with an altar at the other side, but there was none in his sight.

“ _This… this is to be expected. It’s dim in here--”_

In the corner of his eye, the lamps hanging from the walls began to light an azure flame. One by one, alternating either side of Slaine, the lamps were enchanted.

Slaine shuddered and was frozen in place out of fear. The flames did not result from a simple spell of fire magic. They were composed of aether currents not from this world, from the living.

“What brings you back?” A voice asked from the shadows; it was a voice he knew very well -- it was his.

Immediately, Slaine went to face the voice, yet it echoed from all directions. Even his heightened senses couldn’t pinpoint an exact location.

“Who’s there?”

“My identity is of little importance. Why have you returned?”

“Returned implies I’ve been here before…”

“... Has a millennium of slumber robbed you of your memory? Do not kid yourself. That is no excuse!” The voice exclaimed and the azure flames grew, matching the fury and intensity of the voice.

With the increased light, the ice that had glossed throughout the chamber began to shake and melt, yet most of all revealed a ghastly dragon resting at the other side of the room.

“ _My draconic form..?”_ Slaine reconsidered and readied to cast a spell.

The dragon had a more majestic and mature aura. He was far from such grace. Even the very act of self-defense, he felt was pointless. The ghastly dragon’s presence was intimidating.

He blinked. “A… thousand years? Since what--”

The ice crackled ear-splittingly and Slaine fell to his knees, covering his ears. He could not look away from the nearby walls; they had collapsed and in their place laid a scene most realistic yet surreal. Men and women ran aimlessly towards him, away from something behind them, and passed Slaine.

Slaine was speechless. Havoc and disarray was all around. Chaos ensued. A scene from the past -- his past was being fabricated and orchestrated by manipulating the aether of the room. Where the ceiling should be, a night sky resided and was at the peak of dawn. The walls’ existence were only confirmed by the faint traces and light of the lamps, but they too were overwritten by the visualization of the various levitating rhombus-shaped structures. The very floor Slaine sat on had turned into a path similar to a nebula in design, yet had the texture synonymous to the cobblestone roads he use to traverse in Vers.

One by one the floating buildings were sinking and falling to the lake below. Panic and cries for help reached his ears and, to his horror, the very people running past him were falling over onto all fours. They rasped and reached forward, only for their humanoid appearances to catch on fire and in their place their aetherial forms remain, before freezing into the ice giants which he was all too familiar. These were the people that had become the Kvef known today. However what appalled him most was not these heartbreaking transformations, but the distant figure at the crossroads.

“Màthair! Màthair!” A young child screamed.

“Milord! Please we must leave--” An attendant had embraced the child and held him back from running into the ensuing madness further into the room, the fabricated memory.

“But-but Harklight! Màthair is--”

Slaine shakily got up and proceeded to the crossroads, in turn going deeper into the room, approaching the dragon who continued to sit on top of the altar.

“Màthair!” His younger self continued to cry and after some fumbling, his child self ran towards a breath of azure flame.

“SLAINE!” Harklight yelled.

Slaine shielded himself as the intense flames passed him. He knew otherwise that the flames were fake, but the memory -- this part -- was all too familiar. His child self flew back as a gust of wind embraced him, ushering off the crossroads and falling into the lake below.

Gazing upward, he could vaguely see the outlines of the falling kingdom and his attendant reaching for him, following suit in his descension to the water below.

And that was the last time he had laid eyes on his home.

The manipulated aether unspun and the illusion dispelled. He now stood at the altar, where the dragon no longer resided. Instead, in its place was a single ice giant. The ice giant was in terrible condition. It no longer stood on its hind legs and instead sat, frozen in place before the altar, and rested its hands on a rod Slaine had seen once before.

It was the heirloom of the Himnariki Royal Family, the Bifrost, and the last wielder was his mother, which led Slaine to conclude…

“Mother…” Slaine tearfully addressed. His breath became uneven seeing the Ice Giant weakly rise its head to properly see him. Tears were trailing down its cheeks.

“Mother…” He tried to speak, but couldn’t help falling to his knees, grasping at her lap, where the vague nostalgia of a familiar touch washed over him, only for reality to kick in. There was neither warmth nor fabric where Slaine got a hold; rough and clear signs of foreboding injuries met his touch.

The ice giant withdrew one of its hands and struggled to grasp Slaine’s chin, making him raise his head. He grit his teeth as he held back a sob. His mother may no longer have been capable of speaking a human tongue, but he knew what she was implying and asking of him.

And with great struggle and a heavy heart, Slaine rose to his feet. Unwrapping his tightened fists, he reached forward to hold either side of his mother’s cheeks. Here and there, cracks danced upon her hardened flesh and bits and pieces began to set adrift. Ash-like snow dissipated and danced past Slaine, becoming specs of light. The Bifrost rolled off the crumbling and affixed frozen being and onto the floor.

Thus, a new ruler took the throne as the Bifrost took hold of its new owner, dissipating into light and resting on the back of the owner’s hand as an encryption fashioned after the Himnariki family crest.

-Inaho-

 

_Himnariki Castle: Outside the Royal Chambers_

_Day 350 in the Ruins_

_Day 365 outside Vers Empire_

 

“Ugh.” Inaho groaned between clenched teeth and grasped his tunic tightly in his left hand.

He stood guard at the most ornate set of doors Inaho had seen of the ruins. They deceptively looked the most maintained and unaffected by the fate of Himnariki. This was primarily due to the fact that behind those very doors laid the antechamber of the Himnariki Royal Family.

Sundering pain, debilitating and frigid, pierced like a sharp dirk into his heart. This heartache was definitely not his; it was Slaine’s. There was no doubt about it.

He had felt a similar sensation when he last spoke to Slaine what felt forever ago now.

“ _No… it’s only been at most an hour since Slaine entered,”_ Inaho reminded himself.

The reminder did little to wash away the ebbing, residing and pulsating pain. Like a ripple disrupting a calm lake, the heartache left him in a crumbling state of composure. The memory of Slaine’s eyes widening in surprise and adopting a dark complexion only made it worse.

 _“The feeling is different now.”_ Inaho observed as he tried to properly identify this pain. If this shared emotional burden was to become more of a norm, it would be problematic to not keep it in check.

Inaho mouthed the words he had said again, “She’ll inform you.”

He knew Slaine’s expression.

It was Inaho’s heart that had grown heavy in guilt.

He needed to do this. He needed confirmation; Slaine felt betrayed. Implicitly even for a fleeting moment, the dragon magus felt his trust was misplaced.

“ _Why?”_  Inaho pondered, and his brow contorted.

He abruptly dropped the thought, taking hold of his sword’s hilt and turning to the ornate doors. Everything was beginning to tremble and, as he closely inspected, the ice was melting just as it was simultaneously being frozen over again.

Inaho reached for the doorknob, but hesitated.

“ _Once Milord enters the chambers, you must -- under no circumstances -- enter if the gates remain closed. Do so and you may harm Milord during his ascension to the throne,”_ Harklight had advised before leaving.

The sage had left the night before Slaine had regained consciousness and made it explicitly clear that Slaine’s recovery was dependent on this very act upon waking up.

“ ** _H… p… m…”_ **

He seized the doorknob and entered the antechamber.

A wave of utmost despair overwhelmed him. He could barely keep his knees from giving way. However, his trembling was a dead giveaway of how emotionally paralyzed he was.

The lamps which hung from the walls had long become an eerie blue and lit with spiritual fire… **_Dragon_ ** fire. Constant trails of melting ice ran down the walls, trinkling loudly as the trails grew in fortitude. The running water was overbearing to his ears, yet somehow incessantly he could hear Slaine clearly.

“Of course! Of course! The Hero of the Terran Knights would seize a prize befitting his accomplishments!”

Everything was wrong about this. Slaine’s smile. Slaine’s stance. Slaine’s tone. Everything.

The dragon magus Inaho went on a journey to the north with was not the person before him.

Eyes flaring and blazing blue, cracks resembling ice pulsed and burned  throughout the magus’s exposed flesh, and most notably, one wing reared itself from the torn garments and stood at attention on Slaine’s left side. Once had Inaho seen Slaine in a hybrid form, but even just that one time, Inaho could tell this was far from a welcoming sight.

A dragon was falling into depravity before him.

“Slaine--” Inaho tried to speak, but he was interjected, no, he was unable to continue.

He gasped for air and felt his body repulse at the sudden thermal shock. Slaine had seized him by the throat and pinned him to the right wall. The water behind Inaho was freezing on his very back.

“I should have known,” Slaine stated. His teeth were becoming more and more draconic and demonic as he spoke.

“Sl...aine…”

‘SILENCE!” Slaine roared.

Inaho writhed after he was released from Slaine’s grasp and fell to the ground from the incidental Dragon Roar.

He coughed a few times before using his unsheathed sword to bring him back to his feet. “Slaine,” he again tried to call in attention. A moment had risen. He had to seize it.

Slaine had fallen to his knees and grasped his head. His hands still remained human although his fingernails had become long. He was incidentally wounding himself.

Inaho limply walked to Slaine, but as he was within arm’s reach --

“STAY AWAY!” Slaine cried. Another Dragon Roar ruptured and more powerful than before, more than Inaho anticipated as he was forced back onto one knee and barely stood his ground, desperately clinging to his sword that had begun to sunder within its sheath.

“No.” Inaho refused. “I will not, Slaine Troyard. I swore--”

Slaine lowered his hands and rose his head slightly. His smile no longer was warped, but still wrong -- wrong in the way Inaho didn’t want to see.

“That’s right… you’ve… you’ve been… very kind to me… I… You could have… you could have killed me without letting me know the truth.”

“I will not--”

“No… you wouldn’t kill me even before I recovered… you treated me equally knowing full well what I really was… all this time--”

“Slaine. Please--”

“What better way to serve your country than to kill the last of the Dragonkin and, best yet, your sworn enemy?” Slaine questioned before laughing, heartbroken. Tears fell from his cheeks.

The heartache was never ending. It plunged ever so more.

“ _Please. Please stop.”_ Inaho blurted in his mind and impulsively reached out for Slaine.

A calm before the storm laid before Inaho. His companion had returned, with Slaine allowing him to caress his cheek. He was warm even as the Kvef -- no Vers -- curse had run rampant and was still visible upon Slaine’s complexion.

“If… if it’s you… I don’t mind,” Slaine mumbled and loudly gulped. His hands tightly grasped at the torn garments.

“No attachment to your home?”

“I… don’t have a home… I can’t be the person Harklight-san wants… I no longer can fulfill my mother’s legacy. Can’t you see Inaho,” Slaine rose his trembling hands; the marks again set ablaze upon his flesh in addition to the draconic aspects that showed no signs of relenting, “I’m already corrupted…”

“You’re not.”

“I’ve fallen considerably already and Magi Saazbaum had already tried to restrain the depravity as much as he could. The Versian Curse is accelerating it. In time I will be no different than the dragon from above… and Inaho… haven’t you… haven’t you already considered me your enemy all this time?”

Inaho sighed and let go of his sword, the hilt of which quickly fell out revealing the damaged blade. Slaine was taken by surprise at the unusable sword, but even more so as Inaho pinched Slaine’s cheeks, much like he recalled his long deceased sister had done ages ago.

“My etiquette for magi may be lacking, but your consideration of me is crude.”

“In- nya- OW!”

Inaho headbutted their foreheads and closed his eyes, concentrating. Their magic must have become interwoven; the feedback Inaho had been getting had to also work the other way.

“You’re not my enemy.”

“For now- now Inaho what are you-”

“Argh!”

“Inaho-”

The dragon knight smirked when struggling to open his eyes and seeing a pair of alarmed, concerned azure eyes look back. Slaine immediately tried to push Inaho away but it was futile. 350 days had passed in the ruins and it was only last night Slaine could functionally and consciously move in a corporeal state; his physical strength had not yet entirely recovered, let alone resemble what he once had.

“Stop it Inaho! Normal humans cannot handle the mana of--”

“I’m no longer entirely human.”

Slaine averted his eyes; for all his struggle, he only managed to get Inaho off his forehead, but the knight’s firm grasp on Slaine’s wrists remained resolute.

“S-sorry… it’s my fault-”

“No. Thank you. Thank you for saving my life. It is I who should apologize.”

Slowly Slaine turned to the knight, perplexed and wordless.

“I had promised and still promise her… no… I may have failed her but I won’t. I promise **you** I will save you.”

“What? Save me from what? Depravity?” Slaine tried to hold back a laugh; he was entirely baffled.

“I’m serious Slaine,” Inaho said in a stern voice and squeezed even harder on Slaine’s wrists.

Inaho grit his teeth as he summoned forth his mana… and Slaine’s mana. The very notion started to cause draconic scales to take shape upon Inaho’s hands and soon, his teeth and head. Slaine paled and desperately tried to break free from Inaho.

“INAHO! STOP! STOP IT!!!”

All Inaho could see was engulfed by the azure flame.

“No,” Inaho curtly responded; his voice no longer resembled that of a human and his throat felt like it was on fire.

“Fine! Fine I give! I’m in your care! Just please… please..! Please don’t hurt yourself anymore for my sake!” Slaine begged and his tears fell upon their joined hands.

Inaho relinquished his concentration and felt himself collapse onto Slaine shoulder.

“I can’t do that,” Inaho weakly informed.

“Why… why do you go so far--”

“You care for yourself too little. I can’t take my eyes off you without thinking you’ll disappear again.”

“Again..?”

Inaho propped himself back up by moving his hold on Slaine’s wrists to his shoulders, “Like Heavensfall. Like now. Why won’t you remain? Return? Stay?”

“ _What more… must I do to convey my desperation? For you to not look for a place to die?”_

Inaho tried to reach for Slaine’s left cheek. The Versian curse was pronounced in a wicked ebony ink, trailing and corrupting over the barely faint white glyphs upon Slaine’s flesh -- the protective markings surely of Magi Saazbaum’s handiwork.

“Inaho..?” Slaine pondered. He tilted his head and incidentally nestled into Inaho’s grasp. His motion was hesitant yet his eyes conveyed his concern for him.

The dragon knight motioned to speak yet the words would not form; his lips would not cooperate. His eyes had become unbelievably heavy. The heavy, dark feeling had dissipated and in its wake, what should have been a void was a warmth washing over him -- feelings of relief, gratitude, and most of all, hope. As he could no longer ward away the exhaustion, he withdrew his hand from Slaine’s cheek and instead embraced the magus. _Tightly._

For someone he had only known for a small glimpse of time, he could not imagine seeing another day without the magus. Even now, the time they shared seemed temporal, so fragile and uncertain. Like the Aurora he had seen the night of Heavensfall, he longed for people and time forever lost. He did not want to lose hold. Not again. Not a second time.

This time… he would not let go.

 

**_-TBC_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Tysm for the continued support! 
> 
> **Acknowledgements:** Thanks Ruenis and Icinks for looking over this growing monstrosity.


	10. Sleet (Side Story)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Another side, another story._   
>  _The difficulties of fatherhood transcend blood and time._

-Saazbaum-

  _Himnariki Castle: Royal Courtyard_

_1016 years ago..._

 "Milord! Please get down from there!" A servant panicked.

Passing down the outside corridor, a young man and his fiancee paused at the sight. On top of an enormous snowman, scaling at least 25 feet tall, a small child sat at the very tip of an enlarged carrot obviously constituting the snowman's nose. Innocently the snowman's creator laughed and dangerously swayed, swinging his legs as he replied to the servant.

"OKAY! Harklight!"

"Thank good-" The servant stopped and looked up in horror.  "MILORD!"

The twelve year-old leaped off the carrot and began to free fall. Flailing about, the servant ran around trying to anticipate and catch the young prince. At such a spectacle, the young man could see his fiancee out stretch her hand, readying a spell but he thwarted her efforts, taking hold of her outstretched arm and lowering it.

"But Lord Saazbaum..."

"Don't underestimate Prince Slaine," Saazbaum said with a smile and a proud tone.

There was nothing to fear for the prince’s safety. He was the son of a Dragonkin whose domain they dwelt in -- an enchanted snow world -- and the Dragon Sage, the craftiest of their magi.

Despite Harklight's intentions, Slaine had other ideas -- ulterior motives -- as the aether currents around the prince began to collect and imbue in a golden glow, which led to the prince safely gliding moments away from landing in Harklight's arms and towards another pile of snow. Harklight sighed and weakly grasped his knees, hunching over as he caught his breath from fright. Tiredly he looked to the prince, who definitely deserved a scolding, but the fear that had overwhelmed Harklight dissipated instantly upon seeing Slaine in complete bliss making snow angels.

"Poor Harklight," Saazbaum's fiancee commented, albeit with a chuckle. "He is definitely the best candidate to be Slaine's Dragon Knight, however."

Saazbaum nodded in agreement as they resumed their walk through the castle. "I couldn't agree more, Orlane."

And far more in agreement when they passed closed doors, where Saazbaum tightened his hold on Orlane's hand. At which point they shared an affectionate moment, resting each other's head on the other. "I can only hope the time will not come when such a custom is necessary.”

***

_Lantern Festival_

_Himnariki Kingdom_

_1012 years ago..._

At the time Saazbaum accepted such a wish as truth. His blind acceptance was clearly wrong.

The falling shards of countless millennia old structures and the blazing fire, melting away everything his eyes could see to a scene he could not fathom in his wildest dreams, spoke volumes of counterarguments he could not bring himself to voice.

He was a fool.

The signs were all evident. They had every means to have prevented this.

"Or... lane..." Saazbaum barely voiced as he rasped, grasping at the evaporating water in his arms, where Orlane should have been.

"M..."

"Mathair!" Slaine's scream became crystal clear.

Saazbaum immediately rose to his feet before momentarily shirking onto one knee. He grit his teeth and slammed his fist upon the damaged leg, encasing it in ice. Without hesitation, he broke into a bolt towards the voice where he began hearing the ruler of their land -- the queen.

"Slaine... stay... back! Harklight! Get him out of here!" The queen commanded.

"Mathair!" Slaine continued to cry and coming to sight, Saazbaum could see Harklight run with the prince in his hold. Arms outstretched, Slaine tearfully tried to reach.

"Your Highness!" Saazbaum called out and went to her aid.

Queen Celestia had risen the Bifrost before her and fought against the commander of the intruders -- Gilzeria vers Vordom. In place of the Vers Empire ruler, a dragon of crimson scales and eyes blazed red with rage. Infernal fire seared the ceiling asunder. Flames engulfed the floor.

"Gilzeria! Listen..! LISTEN TO ME!" The queen desperately begged.

Within the vicinity, Saazbaum grimaced as the immediate area’s temperature escalated and at every step of the furious dragon, steam flourished. Saazbaum summoned a pristine blade of crystal and aided in the queen's effort. She had erected a highly sophisticated barrier, which she continuously and repeatedly cast one over the other.

The Vers Dragon, the Dragon of Charity, had become a tempest of flame and destruction. It was a fury that would not yield.

"Your Highness! It's no use. He has fallen and will no longer listen to reason!" Saazbaum inputted.

"Even so... even... I have--"

Yet the queen did not falter in her and continue to try no matter the growing futility. Each wave of water and ice that clash, imbued with her protective magic clashed and instantly sublimed into vapor, sizzling with defeat.

The advising magi's stance slumped upon hearing her reply and slowly, turned to face her. A weak smile and a nervous chuckle escaped her lips. The veins of her right side pulsated an eerie blue and her very flesh had become charred, becoming the darkest of night.

"Celestia..." Saazbaum began, turning to her side and changing spells to that of warmth. "You cannot keep this up. This is severe frostbite--"

"Saazbaum. We don't have the time and it's useless. It's a Dragon's Curse... the Dragon of Greed."

Saazbaum grit his teeth, withdrawing his hands and knelt to his queen. This was her last stand and she was set on this path. "What is it that you wish of me, my queen? Your will is my command."

"Thank you Saazbaum..."

Queen Celestia withdrew her staff and faced Saazbaum. "Saazbaum... my son... Slaine..." Queen Celestia whimpered as she began to weep.

Her figure began to dissolve into golden light, and the spectacles of gold began to dance and reassemble into a magnificent ice dragon, which moved towards the rampaging inferno further down the hall. "Please... please watch over him in my stead. Don't let him fall to Depravity."

...

Again the wish seemed to fall to deafened ears or incapable hands, Saazbaum despaired.

Harklight had succeeded in protecting Prince Slaine, but at the cost his life. What should have been, never could be ever again.

A ghostly Harklight tried to comfort a sobbing prince who constantly apologized to him.

"Lord Saazbaum..." Harklight noticed, and finally paid heed to the labored footsteps into the ruined shore.

Saazbaum was speechless at the sight. Only these two remained untouched, unharmed of the Versian Curse. All that had managed to swim ashore were no longer human. Rigid, fearsome giant beasts of the toughest and coldest glacial ice laid wearily at Saazbaum's left and right.

"Ma... mathair..." Slaine stammered and crawled to Saazbaum's frozen leg.

The former advising magi grimaced and clenched his teeth. The words would not come yet they need not be said. The prince was always so sensitive, so empathetic and understanding. He could not hide the truth.

He wished he could. He wished... He wished he could have done something to change this past.

But that was neither a creed he was to bear nor one he could dare have the prince bear.

A painful screech filled the air and the very ground trembled. Saazbaum dug his heels to maintain his footing to no avail. Slaine cried out loud and lightning began to lash out from the young prince. Gibberish of various encryptions danced and laced the very earth, calling forth unspeakable amounts of aether and twisting their very nature. In the center of the forming crater, Slaine's humanoid form morphed and warped. With each thunder and crackle of lightning, the water in the air sublimed and froze into ice, surrounding Slaine. Draconic, malnourished wings spread over Slaine's back and shimmering supernatural sapphire flames illuminated in the gathering enchanted golden dust.

Another dragon was falling before Saazbaum.

_"Please.... watch over him... Depravity..."_ His Queen's final command rang in his ears.

His frozen limb shattered and he barely did not fall flat upon the ground. With whatever remnant of his irreparable limb, Saazbaum rose his trembling hands to the unraveling hailstorm and cursed under his breath. He did not need to utter an incantation as the aether gathered into his hands willingly, as if understanding his deepest and dire call of aid. Weakly the aether abide him as opposed to the raging storm and wound up the twisted aether along with its summoner. Once, twice, thrice the turbid aether tried to escape.

"No. I will not fall here!" Saazbaum exclaimed.  "For Orlane. For our home. For everything we've lost this day!"

He formed fists with his hands. He did not want to do this but he could see no other way.

A cry. A struggle. A ruffle. A scramble. A whimper.

Each revolution the seemingly dull aether Saazbaum controlled froze over like leaves, petals and wrapped the storm within -- more tightly than the last until...

"Milord..." Harklight weakly addressed. He went to reach but withdrew his grasp.

The last of the royal family no longer walked among them.

"Hate me if you must my prince," Saazbaum supplied as he collapsed upon to the floor, "but Her Highness..." _"Did not want this fate to befall you."_

_***_

_Himnariki Ruins: Entryway_

_1000 years ago…_

“Dragon Sage Troyard! Please reconsider what you are thinking to do!” Harklight argued.

“I will not standby idly as our countrymen live by scraps! In the bitter cold! I refuse! I refuse to remain in this sinking ruins while the Versians continue their conquest!” The Queen’s consort exclaimed and slammed his hand to the back wall.

Next to the back wall, the windows had begun to be covered in algae. In a few years’ time, the scenery it portrays would be impossible to see… almost as if...

He angrily smacked his hand through Harklight’s ghostly figure and turned away. He proceeded towards the exit only to pause outside the Chamber of Meditation. There, the consort’s son remained frozen before him. Troyard clenched his teeth; his fists shook in frustration upon the sight.

“I know you want to come along as well, Saazbaum. Even if you lie to yourself, blinding and binding yourself to her creed. I can feel it from here. Your killer intent.” Troyard called out with Saazbaum revealing himself from the shadows.

“...”

“Are you going to use deadly force to stop me?”

“No. Even if I advised against what you intend to do, you will find a way. But Troyard, I must beseech you.”

Troyard’s trembling fists calmed as the sage exhaled deeply. “Yes, I am certain.”

Saazbaum would not let him escape this. The queen would not allow this. “Are you abandoning your duties to Prince Slaine?”

“...”

“If you cannot, then--”

Troyard turned his back to Saazbaum. “We will keep in touch and when the time comes… I’ll see to it you will have your revenge.”

And thus the Dragon Sage was succeeded by Harklight. Between Harklight and Saazbaum, only Harklight was familiar with the rites of the Dragonkin. They had to be passed down… They could not be forgotten.

If only that.

***

_Himnariki Ruins: Chamber of Meditation_

_200 years ago..._

An elderly, cloaked man hacked and coughed. He tightened his hold upon his quarter staff which also served as his cane.

"Dragon Sage..." Saazbaum recognized albeit now simply a title of formality and hobbled his way into the chamber, quickly. "If I had known you were arriving--"

"Doctor Troyard."

"..? Doctor... Troyard?"

The man laughed sardonically and he removed the hood of his cloak. The ashen blond hair, which Saazbaum was familiar with upon a much younger fellow, had gone deathly pale, white as bones. Saazbaum's heart sunk and twisted at the sight. Many years had passed since he had last seen the queen's consort. Doctor Troyard never was the same man again after that day. He could not be blamed for what he had turned into. A man solely and entirely consumed by revenge.

"That is my identity among those arrogant artificers -- the Versians."

"All this time... you've been among them?" Saazbaum questioned. Truth be told, Saazbaum had considered the former Dragon Sage dead. 800 years years had passed and not even a mere whisper of contact had been made.

"Yes. However my time is soon. My magic is gone. Her blessing is no longer with me. I've..." Doctor Troyard laughed hysterically and with shaky legs, stood up and gawked upon the enshrined ice.

"There is no need to say more... Doctor Troyard. You have done well to do what you thought was best."

Doctor Troyard shook his head but for what reasons, he did not voice. Instead he approached Saazbaum and retrieved something from his weathered cloak. Unlike the doctor, Saazbaum had not aged a day since and ever vigilantly remained at the fallen castle, trying whatever he could where he was to follow his queen's last order... or perhaps try to remain by Orlane's side. Was his inaction any better?

Saazbaum took the items which Doctor Troyard dropped into his hands. Identification papers, recommendations and money -- everything essential to blend into Versian society. The former advising magus was familiar with this; it may have been hundreds of years but warfare did not change. Espionage and subterfuge were one of Himnariki's expertise.

"These are..."

"I've done all I could to achieve a position of power. In time, it will grow only more. I believe you will find it most beneficial to take this opportunity. Become my successor there and rise even higher."

"Dragon Sage... even after all these years, the Versians wouldn't have--"

The doctor shook his head and a terrible, dark smirk formed. "You have nothing to worry my old friend. Go forth and see for yourself, the irony and power. We did not suffer alone, Saazbaum... but..." Doctor Troyard looked over his shoulder at his son that remained asleep within the ice. "They may have the answers we need."

"A cure for their doing?"

"That I have tried with not much noteworthy success. I've only managed to find ways to reduce it to manageable means . More importantly... I believe what she wanted... only you can achieve it Saazbaum. I no longer can... rather..." Doctor Troyard frowned. "maybe I lost that right long ago."

"Troyard..."

***

_Vers Empire:  Academy of Arcane_

_Headmaster’s Office_

_100 Years ago…_

Saazbaum unlocked the door and turned the door knob. He let the door creak open slowly on its own while peeking outside the ornate windows overlooking the Palace Gardens. It was not the garden, however, his gaze was to a farther distance where smoke still rose from a burning mound. The previous headmaster, Doctor Troyard, had passed and in his wake, Saazbaum had succeeded his position.

Momentarily he rested his palm on the desk that now was his before approaching the inner wall. Before the wall, a portrait hanged and numerous piles of books gathered on the floor. Saazbaum chuckled at the sight. It was a habit the late Troyard never outgrew even during their days as classmates.

“ _A bookcase is in order for this…”_ Saazbaum thought to himself before gazing at the portrait.

The portrait had to go too. It was too plain for his liking -- rather, it was painful to look at. From afar the portrait seemed like landscape painting of a winter wonderland but where the rays of sun met the snow, the shining glacier revealed what the painting was really of. This was how Doctor Troyard had whisked back into the Castle before; it was a portal home. He could have returned. He could have contacted so many times.

Reaching into the painting, Saazbaum pulled the very fabrics imbued with Troyard’s magic and summoned forth the one encased in the glacier -- Slaine -- into his arms.

“The time has come for us to resume what ended that day, my prince,” Saazbaum spoke.

With the weight of the painting removed, the inner wall slowly slid to the side and unveiled a path.

“They have forgotten their misdeed and continue to drag our civilization’s heritage through the dirt. They lay blame of their ailment, which they’ve cursed our people as our doing.”

Through the cracks of the hidden path, Saazbaum stopped when it had snaked along the Medical Wing. Screams of pain ringed in his ear yet neither Saazbaum flinched nor Slaine awoke from his slumber.

To deaf ears Saazbaum went on both in speech and to a bedroom he once occupied, “The Kvef Curse and the Versian Curse are one and the same. With their Dragon of Charity corrupted and their bloodline inept in the Draconic arcane, they have lost their immunity to the very curse they created.”

Saazbaum sighed when resting and tucking Slaine in bed. “Together we suffer under the miasma… so Your Highness, I beseech you -- what will be your will? Peace and prosperity like Queen Celestia had wished? Or destruction and damnation as Dragon Sage Troyard had schemed?”

***

_Vers Empire: Academy of Arcane_

_Headmaster's Office_

_Five years ago..._

Saazbaum sighed after a long day of what seemed like a blur to him -- meetings with the Versian Counsel, lectures to young aspiring magi seeking to become Orbital Magi, and duties falling under his responsibilities as Headmaster. Although physically tired, his mind grew restless. The people of Himnariki had begun to move after a millennium.

He gripped his enchanted knee. The present seemed to be at the cusp of repeating the past. Saazbaum should have known something was astray when Harklight reported his inability to contact their people, who now were identified as the Kvef -- Ice Giants.

"After all this time... why?" Saazbaum mumbled to himself before standing and approaching a bookcase.

At the bookcase, he reached a vaguely odd book compared to the rest and upon pulling the book, the bookcase became hazy until nothing of its existence remained. In its place, an entrance was revealed. A secret only Saazbaum--

Saazbaum quickly cast a spell upon himself to silence his steps and hurried down the stone stairs. A light illuminated down the passageway. There shouldn't have been one.

"Slaine!" Saazbaum feared and reached for the door at the end.

He held his cane over his head, ready to cast a spell but held off. Saazbaum could feel his legs giving way and his eyes water.

"Headmaster!" A girl yelled and stood at attention. She bowed incessantly and apologized, "Forgive me Headmaster! I didn't mean to intrude but you see--"

"...not... r... fault..."

1000 years… 1000 years, the prince remained asleep in the midst of utmost sorrow. 1000 years... had passed and he awakened. Not to Harklight. Not to Saazbaum. Not to his deceased father. To her.

The heir to the Dragon of Charity, the Dragon of Greed... Asseylum vers Allusia.

"... Headmaster Saazbaum?" Asseylum asked worriedly.

Saazbaum could not address her. He was taken aback and felt his feet walk on their own towards the bed, where he approached Slaine's side and grasped the prince's hands.

Perhaps, one wish can still come true.

Perhaps the future they had sought can still be achievable.

Just maybe...

***

_Vers Empire: Library_

_Four years ago…._

Saazbaum couldn’t help but smile when leaning at the doorway to the far back section of the library. The library was supposed to be closed, yet a light still remained lit. It was a common occurrence, however, as the headmaster’s appointed librarian tended to take advantage of the large repertoire of knowledge at his fingertips. Most nights he would let the foolery of youth be, but not this night.

Behind Saazbaum, a nicely dressed woman stood shyly and waited.

“Slaine.”

“Er-  Ah. Sorry Headmaster! I- I’ll close up momentarily!..” Slaine’s panicked voice echoed from behind the many bookshelves.

His shadow did not hide what he was doing -- he had been trying to practice ballroom dancing.

“Not momentarily. This instant,” Saazbaum playfully scolded. “You wouldn’t want to make a young lady wait, would you?” He added and could see Slaine immediately drop everything that he was trying to return to their proper shelves.

“N-never!’

Slaine immediately ran to the doorway donning the formal attire befitting an Orbital Magus. Such a uniform had become a norm for the headmaster; in ages past, the crimson uniform accenting in golden trims had filled Saazbaum’s heart with dread but now brought a sense of pride. Only those recognized for their magic amplitude and skillfulness in their craft were given the title of Orbital Magus. It was a title few Versians could ever dream to have. By Versian tradition, only 37 Orbital Magi were instated. 37 Magi had accompanied their Dragon and established the Vers Empire.

Saazbaum reached for the young man’s collar and straightened it, letting his cane lean against his leg. Although different from what many had envisioned the Kvef Prince’s magical talent to be recognized, this celebration was nothing to take light of. “Good. Now then…”

Sheepishly Slaine gulped and offered his arm to Asseylum, who smiled and without hesitation wrapped hers around his.

“Let’s go Slaine! I’ve been wanting to properly introduce you to Grandfather.”

“Grandfather- Hime- that’s..!”

Watching from afar, Saazbaum felt nostalgia as what was so long ago seemed within reach. As the young pair passed the double doors into the ballroom, Saazbaum could remember a festival in a distant land filled with lights and dancing with someone under the moonlight.

“ _Orlane…”_ He reminisced before taking his leave.

Maybe her wish can still come true..

_***_

_Three years ago..._

**_Knock. Knock. Knock._ **

Saazbaum placed his quill down and looked to the door. He sighed as he could already identify who was behind the door. The person had obviously paced for the last half hour outside.

"Come in."

The doorknob turned and someone donning the student attire entered the room. The uniform meant nothing to Saazbaum. He knew better,  better than even the young man himself.

"Head... Headmaster Saazbaum," Slaine addressed sheepishly and cast his eyes to his right.

Saazbaum's heart sank, but he retained his composure. This was to be expected. This was the new normal. A slumber of a millennium would not be without side effects, and memory loss was a common one.

"What troubles you to come by so late at night?"

None of the splendor and wonder remained in Slaine from before the fall of their kingdom, a fate Slaine no longer recalled. However the body still remembered, surely... it was the only reason Saazbaum could discern for Slaine's changed demeanor.

"The Orbital Magi..."

"What about them?"

Saazbaum could see Slaine's tremble as he tightened his fists. "I have heard they are going to the front."

The headmaster fell silent. He could see where this conversation was going... Saazbaum had fallen short of his own expectations.

Slaine rose his head and glared at Saazbaum. Momentarily Saazbaum felt utterly mortified, frozen in place as Slaine's eyes briefly glowed azure like then. "Why was I not informed? As one of the Orbital Magi, I should not have heard this from Hime!"

"..."

"Saazbaum what is the meaning of this?" Slaine demanded and approached Saazbaum's desk, slamming his palms upon them.

_"My prince do you not understand what you would do?"_ Saazbaum thought to himself.

"ANSWER ME!"

Saazbaum closed his eyes, resting his forehead upon his crossed hands, which were propped up on the desk. He could not tell him the whole truth. A lie?

No...

"Forgive me Slaine. You've only recently recovered. I could not bear the thought of losing you so soon," Saazbaum professed.

Slaine took a step back in mild surprise before resuming his previous stance, the withdrawn student hesitant of the world. "Saazbaum... I... I'm thankful for your concern. Words alone cannot suffice... my gratitude to you... But I... I cannot stand by as my fellow countrymen risk their lives to a great evil."

A chill went down Saazbaum's spine and his heart instantly became cold.

What had he done?

***

_Two years ago..._

There was much to the irony of the situation. Neither Slaine nor the people of Vers were aware of their heritage.

But did it matter?

They lived in some semblance of peace. Much blood had been spilled, more so in recent years, but after living a millennium, perhaps this was the true nature of mankind. They were incapable of breaking this cycle; it was their very nature to continually spin this fate.

To make Doctor Troyard's goals a reality would make no difference, and even in this current situation, Saazbaum could continue to abide by the wish of his fallen monarch.

But could he forget..?

Could he forget _her_ smile? _Her_ gentle grip in his hand? _Her_ chuckle. _Her_ hope for the future. For _their_ future.

No… he could not. Ever.

There was more irony than he originally thought.

The moment the messenger left his office, Saazbaum leaned into his chair. His greatest fear had come to pass.

Slaine had contracted the Versian Curse.

Saazbaum should have prevented Slaine, no matter the petty the tactic, from going to the battlefield. There was no turning back now, or perhaps... there never was such an option.

His wits returned when he had reached Slaine's room in the medical ward. The temperature in the room had dropped and in the most distant of corners, the very vapor seemed to freeze and form icicles. The doctor tending to Slaine, Doctor Yagarai, approached him and Saazbaum was once again walking back into the corridor.

"The curse is spreading faster than we've ever seen before," Doctor Yagarai informed. "At this rate he will..."

It was obvious why the Versian doctor had not seen this before by the other patients; unlike the Versians, Slaine and their people, the Kvef, were entirely prone to the curse. They did not have an inkling of protection from the curse of another Dragonkin.

Saazbaum rose to his feet, interjecting the doctor, and returned to Slaine's side. Blue veins, even in the darkness shone eerily and spread like wildfire from where the Kvef had touched Slaine on his back. Saazbaum withdrew his hand from his side and placed it overhead of Slaine. He flinched and clenched his teeth while beginning to cast the enchantment; it was a spell he was not to ever use.

**_"Hlustaðu á símtalið mitt og óttast græðgi_ **

**_Komdu og vertu trú mín..."_ **

"Headmaster!" Doctor Yagarai cried out upon seeing Saazbaum slashed and blood splattering to his side of the room.

_"I will not falter. Not here. Not ever. Until her will be done,"_ Saazbaum reiterated to himself as he continued the cast, even as he was down on one knee.

He could see his spell beginning to take effect as white chain-like calligraphy traced over the veins, which dulled in their inflammation.

**_"... Þetta barn skal... ekki ganga... í sáttmála þinn_ **

**_Vegna þess að ég hef það... sem þú leitar og tekur... það sem þú vilt af... næ... nærveru minni_ **

**_En láta þetta unga vera..!"_ **

***

_Present..._

"Lord Saazbaum... His Highness has ascended the throne," Harklight reported behind him, kneeling and right hand over his heart as a proper and formal bow.

"I see..." Saazbaum went while gazing outside. Below his window, the courtyard was in sight and like then, he could see children play in the snow. Laughter filling the air and among them, the current Empress joined the little ones in making snow angels.

"Are you still considering..." Harklight asked but Saazbaum did not listen. He knew what Harklight was asking.

He could not forget.

"Yes."

"And if His Highness wishes--"

"Even so, I must do it."

And he could not bear the thought of leaving this fate to the new king. The past should not deter the future. He would pave the way so nothing of the past and all its ugliness should chain his king.

Even if he must become his enemy.

 

**_-TBC_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Happy Belated Father's Day to all the fathers around the world (not just America; it's thought that truly counts after all).


	11. Heavensward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Nothing is more uncertain than one's fealty."_

**=XI:  Heavensward=**

-Inaho-

_Himnariki Castle:  Chamber of Meditation_

_Day 350 in the Ruins_

_Day 365 outside Vers Empire_

 

“Good grief, Kaizuka,” Slaine commented and sighed in resignation.

The dragon magus had laid his knight on the bed they had shared. He could not remove Inaho’s arms wrapped around his neck.

“I…” Inaho tried to speak but could only nestle his forehead more on Slaine’s right shoulder.

Slaine returned the gesture, wrapping an arm around Inaho’s waist and patting Inaho’s head.

“It’s all right… I know. It hurts,” Slaine said in an understanding tone of voice.

With his fingers, Slaine gently brushed Inaho’s draconic horns that had yet to dissipate from their earlier encounter. The horns showed very little, if any change. Inaho shuddered at the touch and his brow furrowed even more. The external stimuli only worsened the throbbing headache that would not relent at the forefront of Inaho’s head.

Why did the pain have to resemble a headache? Scratches, sprains, broken bones, burns, stab wounds -- any other affliction of pain he could tolerate. Headaches… headaches brought back unpleasant, unwanted memories.

“Kaizuka… I’m going to move, all right? I’ll go slow.” Slaine notified.

Inaho nodded while clenching his teeth. Even the small movement was nauseating. Slaine had moved them closer to the center of the bed and shifted Inaho to lie properly on the bed… albeit still embracing Slaine around his neck. The magus seemed to have considered such and Inaho could feel the blanket falling over their shoulders.

“There. That should be more comfortable.”

“Is the…” Inaho tried to speak but it was still no good.His throat was inflamed and his voice hoarse. The human vocal cords were not meant to replicate a Dragon’s Roar.  Inaho had wanted to ask but surrendered to  rhetorically asking himself, “ _Is each dragon to human transformation this terrible?”_  

Slaine yawned and once again brought his hand to Inaho’s head. This time, however, he did not touch the horns and instead gently rubbed Inaho’s temples with the tips of his thumb and ring finger.

“The pain will subside faster once you relax. So try to sleep this off, Kaizuka.”

_"Easier said than done,”_ Inaho complained to himself, childishly. He tried to turn away from Slaine’s touch and get more comfortable on the pillow.The horns were not helping.

He really wanted to sleep this off. He didn’t want to be awake right now. He didn’t want to feel this sensation again. He didn’t want to feel anything that resembled that time.

Even if it was _Slaine’s_ touch on his forehead, it painfully resembled _her_ touch.

“Kaizuka?”

Inaho slowly opened his eyes a little before closing them shut. The azure eyes were filled with concern. Moments ago, they were a sight Inaho desired to see but now… now,  he couldn’t bear it. Inaho knew what he saw was blue yet his throbbing head kept overwriting them to amber. His mind was slipping and beginning to recollect something he had desperately kept at the far reaches of his mind.

His ears perked up when hearing a playful pout and huff from Slaine. Slaine had removed his hand from Inaho’s forehead.

“Need I remind you, you are a knight of the Vers Empire? Ordering you to sleep this off should be within your capability. Or… has your discipline become that lax?”

The headache seemed to slightly relent and Inaho could feel the corner of his lips rise. There was no way he could mistake this annoying individual for his sister. Inaho again opened his eyes and saw them reflected in Slaine’s. He could feel his grasp on reality restoring itself.

“Of… course not… Your… Highness,” Inaho forced himself to tease in a labored manner.

Slaine’s eyes narrowed.

“Don’t even start, Kaizuka.”

* ** _FLICK*_ **

“Ow,” Inaho groaned to Slaine’s flick on his forehead.

“Now sleep. Your idiocy has worn me out enough as it is.”

“Yours…”

“Kaizuka…”

Inaho closed his eyes. His smile never subsided as he felt he would get a restful sleep for the first time in a year.

***

“... be… right… there,” Slaine’s voice mumbled.

Inaho slowly stirred from his sleep.

Slaine chuckled and Inaho could see Slaine untangle Inaho’s hand from his robe. Inaho must have grasped Slaine in his sleep.

“Sleep some more Kaizuka.”

Groggily, Inaho tried to sit up. He had fallen asleep face down and he could tell he had drooled somewhat as he tried to wipe the corner of his mouth.

“No. There’s no need for you to get up right now.” Slaine insisted and tucked Inaho back under the cover.

“Hark…” Inaho started only to find his throat parched.

He renewed his tightened hold on Slaine’s robe much to Slaine’s displeasure.

“Yes… He’s back but you… you need to rest,” Slaine refuted. He grasped Inaho’s hands with both of his, relinquishing Inaho’s tug.

Slaine could see Inaho was not exactly pleased with this course of action.

“Stubborn Orange…” Slaine mumbled under his breath and shook his head.

“Fine…” Inaho gave in, bitterly.

Again, Slaine chuckled. Something about the sound made Inaho uncomfortable.

“You’re being rather uncharacteristically childish, Inaho. I suppose even you can have your tantrums…” Slaine observed. The magus finally escaped Inaho’s hold but as he was withdrawing his own grasp on Inaho’s hand, Slaine retrieved the familiar silver amulet from his pocket and placed it in Inaho’s palm. “I’ll be back. With water… and what Harklight has to say from the surface. So take care of this for me in the meantime.”

Inaho huffed and turned his back to Slaine. “ _I’m not a kid.”_ Inaho pouted.

Seemingly satisfied, Slaine then made his way out of the chamber and Inaho once more tried to fall back asleep.

**_“...”_ **

**_“...N…”_ **

**_“...Nao… kun.”_ **

Inaho brusquely sat up. He had broken into a cold sweat. His attention was immediately upon his hands. Nothing was in his reach. Nothing was in his grasp. He blinked repeatedly. That couldn’t be right. Tightly, tightly he squeezed what rested on his palm. Tightly he held onto the amulet.

He tumbled out of bed but wasted no time to remain on all fours. Even if he had to struggle haphazardly, Inaho urgently reached for the door and tried to break into a run. A desperation and irrational fear had overwhelmed him. He couldn’t understand why yet it was the only conclusion he could draw -- he had to find Slaine.

***

-Slaine-

_Himnariki Castle: Atrium_

 

Slaine had entered the atrium and looked around. The Dragon Sage was nowhere in sight.

“ _He must have gone to the armory for what I had asked him for earlier…”_ Slaine inferred and walked up the staircase. He bitterly smiled. “ _Always so quick on his feet… even after all this time.”_

Atop the staircase, Slaine stood before the restored painting. The likeness displayed was no longer of his mother, but now of his own image. He was at a loss of words, uncertain of what to make of the change.

It was a train of thought he had to cease when someone had knelt behind him. The sound of a blade singing as it sank back into its scabbard, Slaine turned to face his loyal attendant Harklight.

“Harklight…” Slaine addressed and took hold of the offered hilt.

Taking the sheathed blade into both of his palms, Slaine inspected the weapon’s exterior. Momentarily his eyes glowed and correspondingly, runes shimmered along the body of the scabbard. Removing the blade from its sheath for a few inches, Slaine confirmed Harklight’s handiwork and could see the blade shine ever brightly until it was again sealed into the scabbard. Slaine gripped the scabbard into his left hand and let it rest to his side as he properly addressed Harklight.

“You’ve outdone yourself, Harklight, and I have been told by Inaho, the robes are also your handiwork. I am always in your debt Harklight-san.”

“Milord… no…” Harklight smiled as he peered upward to his charge, his eyes shone even more than normal as they watered. The servant was proud, unspeakably so. “Your Highness, it is my greatest joy to serve you once more. If it is within my power, your wish is my command.”

Slaine’s brow bent as he tightened his free hand into a fist. He averted his gaze and bit his lower lip. “I am no king Harklight. There is no kingdom without its people.”

Harklight stood and sternly gazed at the new ruler. “The people of Himnariki live, Your Highness. Even if they no longer reside here and may never return, the heritage of our land still lives on,” Harklight informed, “and thus, the kingdom exists. You are my king until my dying breath. You cannot tell me otherwise.”

Slaine sighed and couldn’t help but chuckle. He tried to cover the smile that formed with the back of his free hand, to no success. Returning the gaze, Slaine agreed. “Yes. Yes, you are correct. That is what Mother had intended. She valued life over the subtleties. That being said…” Slaine lowered his head, hiding his eyes with his fringe. “Not all may agree, especially as time passes… nothing is more uncertain than one’s fealty.”

Harklight frowned and supplied, closing his eyes. His expression was marred with disappointment when having to tell what he had to say. “He still intends to do what he has planned.”

“I see… I expected no less.” Slaine paused as he rose his head slightly. “Knowing him, I imagine the signal would be--”

The double doors entering the atrium swung open. Dissimilar eyes glowed from the darkened corridor.

“Kaizuka?” Slaine recognized, alarmed at the sight.

Harklight rose and blocked Slaine with the back of his right arm. “Stand back, Your Highness. He is not himself.”

Slaine was confounded by Harklight’s response but respected Harklight’s notion. Harklight withdrew his hand and proceeded down the staircase.

“Kaizuka Inaho. Regain your wits about you!” Harklight demanded. Raising his withdrawn hand, Harklight had begun to cast a spell. “Do not make me immobilize-- ARGH!”

Harklight was knocked aside, and upon impact the staircase railing he fell onto was obliterated. Originating from Inaho’s left foot, the very foundation of the castle had rippled and risen in the form of stalagmites.

“ _This magic..!”_  Slaine was appalled at the events unfolding before him.

Inaho had not uttered a single arcane incantation -- an act he had always consistently done in the past. Slaine summoned his staff into his freehand and held it in a defensive stance. The transmutation magic had transferred more than he had anticipated.

“Kaizuka…” Slaine grumbled weakly. Inaho had begun to walk towards Slaine. His walk made it explicitly clear he was really not himself. He swayed. He dragged his feet. Most of all, his left arm shook as he tried to reach outwards into the distance to Slaine. Slaine’s grasp on the Bifrost weakened; his heart wrenched in pain seeing Inaho like this.

“ _What have I done? “_ Slaine queried. Surely there had to have been another way. There must have been more time… He didn’t have to use such a crude method.

Slaine’s eyes widened when meeting Inaho’s. Inaho’s mouth was moving.

“ _No.”_ Slaine resolved and instantly made the Bifrost disappear. He broke into a dash.

“Your Highness!” Harklight cried when regaining his footing from the rubble.

“Don’t leave me alone.” Inaho had soundlessly pled.

There was no need to hesitate. The stalagmites rose again from where Inaho stood, but from all directions. Slaine leaped onto the rising earth and reached his destination. He outstretched his arms as he jumped and embraced Inaho.

“I’m here, Inaho.” Slaine said in Inaho’s ear. “I am here.” Slaine repeated.

He tightened his embrace but his strength paled to Inaho’s. The knight’s arms held Slaine to the point Slaine almost felt a tinge of pain. Slaine continued to speak into Inaho’s ear, reminding him. He was here and in his arms. He reassured over and over. It didn’t matter how many times. The hold lessened. The stalagmites that had risen were slowly submerging back to where they had come from, much like Inaho’s legs had given way and he was slowly returning back to a deep slumber.

Moments had only passed but felt like eternity when Slaine noticed Harklight had returned to their side.

“Harklight I-” Slaine tried to apologize but stopped. The Dragon Sage had shook his head preemptively.

“No need. I was out of place. The bond between a Dragon Magus and his knight is strong, unbreakable even to depravity. It is only recently that you’ve reestablished this bond, Your Highness.”

“Yes… and I’ve become painfully aware, I’ve done more than restore Inaho’s physiology.”

“That is correct. Your manas have become interlaced, even after your aetherial separation. His current state is far less human than he was before.”

“He’s more Dragonkin now… and right now, I can see his draconic urges are manifesting.” Slaine bitterly confessed. “I should have known better…”

“Even if you had, considering the circumstances from the surface… I beg to differ that another course of action could have been been pursued. I believe your judgement was the best considering the situation.”

Slaine offered a smile. “Thank you Harklight… but I must still apologize. I need to bring Inaho back to the chamber. What has transpired… would not sit well for him.” He chuckled as he again flicked Inaho on the forehead. “Although...To think his urges would make him so childish is quite the discovery.”

Harklight sighed  when retrieving Inaho from Slaine. “You’re not going to let him live this one down, will you Your Highness?”

Wordlessly, Slaine confirmed Harklight’s suspicion.

***

_Himnariki Castle:  Chamber of Meditation_

_Day 352 in the Ruins_

_1 Year  2 day outside Vers Empire_

 

Slaine’s eyes flickered open and adjusted to the light but soon shut tight. He quickly covered his nose and looked away.

“Achoo!”

“Bless… you.” A voice mumbled from underneath the covers.

“Thank you.”

Slaine smiled when seeing Inaho stir from beneath the covers and his characteristic expressionless face.

“Sleep well?” Slaine asked when taking the opportunity to wiggle his way out from the covers. He had tolerated the excessive heat out of consideration for Inaho, but saw no need to continue with Inaho sitting up and rubbing his right eye.

Inaho nodded. “What news did Harklight bring?”

“ _He doesn’t realize he had been asleep for over a day…”_ Slaine noted, but tried his best to mask his concern. Thankfully Inaho’s slumber seemed impossible to disrupt and Slaine was able to hear what Harklight had to say when Slaine remained in bed with the knight. “A year has passed since we last were on the surface… The Dragon Magus we encountered has long left the vicinity, but the land still bears the scars of our last encounter…” Slaine’s voice trailed into a whisper at the end.

“Dragon Magic should not be so easily trifled with.” Inaho stated and seemed to stare at Slaine.

“If that’s your way of scolding me, I beg to differ with the childish Terran Knight who wouldn’t let me leave the bed all day.”

“Past day?”

“That’s right. You’ve been unconscious for a little over 24 hours.”

Inaho’s brow contorted. “I saw you leave before I dozed off… That couldn’t have been…”

Slaine finally rose and stretched his right arm. It had fallen asleep from constantly being used as a pillow by Inaho. “It has.” Slaine carefully avoided mentioning what had transpired and gazed squarely at Inaho. “So it’s my turn to ask -- how are you feeling? Truly.”

“...”

The magus waited and even crossed his arms to imply his distaste at Inaho’s behavior. The knight would not relent; he remained silent. Slaine clenched his teeth. For a moment the frustration took hold of him.  Slaine had begun to fear the worst after waking up every so often in the past day and finding Inaho still asleep. The magus reminded himself… a day was nothing compared to the year Inaho had had to put up with his shenanigans. Furthermore, this behavior was to be expected.

“ _He probably thinks it’ll pass… much like I did,”_ Slaine considered. “Fine… I won’t nag… but regardless, we won’t be leaving immediately.”

“Not even within a week?”

“I mean in a week yes… it’s just not within the next day or two.” Slaine corrected and rubbed the back of his head, averting his eyes. “I would like to resume our travels northward, but not returning to the surface in a similar manner as we had arrived here.”

Inaho leaned back onto the bed mantle. “Would this be because of the coup d’etat Headmaster Saazbaum has been planning?”

“Harklight informed you?”

“In a way.”

“ _Harklight must have been debating if Inaho would be a potential threat to the cause.... “_ Slaine thought but turned his attention to the knight. “How did that go?”

“It went.”

“...”

Inaho sighed, seeing Slaine was dead serious. “I told him that I would rather discuss the matter first with you before making any conclusions.”

“Phew…”

“I would not condone blindly changing allegiance or causing an uproar. There are still benefits for me to remain neutral on this, or potentially more obviously of the Vers Empire cause.”

“In other words… you see it an equal opportunity to remain on the side of the Vers Empire.”

“... Between the two of us, I’m more convincing as a trustworthy vassal considering how we left our affairs there and with recent developments here. What you should be asking--”

“Can I trust you?”

“Yes.”

***

-Inaho-

_Underground  Caverns_

_1 year  in the Ruins_

_1 year 2 weeks  1 day  outside Vers Empire_

 

Beneath thousands of feet of earth and water, in the near darkness,  sparks exchanged as bone met steel and magic. Skeletons cackled and shakily charged forward, seemingly bombarding something further down the path. A knight and a magus fought side-by-side, handling the horde of undead.

Within Inaho’s left hand, a newly crafted sword of midnight obsidian shone. In the faintest of light, ghastly blue  encryptions seemingly levitated and moved eerily over the metal. The blade was unlike the standard issue sword of the Vers Empire; the blade curved and resembled more a hardened, tempered pillar of ice rather than a typical sword. Its very form seemed unethical for a knight such as himself; it fitted more for a mage knight. However, the weight of the blade was perfect. Every swing landed how he intended.

It was _too_ perfect.The blade seemed solely crafted for him.

“ _Did he enchant this?”_  Inaho wondered, uncomfortably.

“Inaho,” Slaine curtly addressed.

This was neither the time nor place. There was work to be done. There was a magus, a newly appointed king to protect.

Inaho swung broadly and let the tip of the sword scratch the dirt, and instantly made a barrier the skeletons could not cross. He allowed the momentum of the swing to make him apparently open. The most intimidating of the undead roared, eyes burning brighter, and beckoned his brethren forward.

“ _Good.”_ Inaho smirked and brought the sword back before him. He raised the blade in front of him and rested his right palm. The encryptions glimmered and resonated with Inaho’s mumbles. The simplistic scrape on the ground lit an orange hue and formed a circle around Inaho and Slaine. The barrier was completed, yet it was only a temporary solution. More skeletons were arriving, and both the way Inaho and Slaine had arrived and where they intended to go were filled with skeletons as far as their eyes could see.

He only had to hold this position for a little bit longer, however long Slaine needed.

“ _Just a bit more…”_  Inaho thought… _heard_ …

Over his shoulder, Inaho could see Slaine had knelt to the ground. The magus too had acquired a new weapon from their stay at Himnariki, although far more magical in nature than Inaho’s sword. The very staff resembled a tree branch made of white crystallized, petrified wood, and where flowers would be, light like fireflies pulsated. Furthermore, the staff radiated light akin to the back of Slaine’s hand.

“... There,” Slaine said in a relieved voice.

Somehow in the cave full of undead growls and the makeshift, crumbling barrier, Inaho could pick out the sound of a single droplet falling to the ground -- specifically where Slaine had touched. Just as Slaine stood up, a ring of white light expanded outward and a strong gust of wind spun around Inaho’s then-shattered barrier. Wherever the gale touched, aether currents spun into the form of tiny angels caressing the skeletons’ cheek bones, and immediately the skeletons collapsed into dust.

Without a moment of hesitation, Slaine proceeded forward while using his staff as a walking stick and followed the collapsing skeletons. Inaho slightly lagged behind; he hesitated, returning his sword back into its scabbard, before following Slaine further into the passage.

“I think we’re finally out of here, Inaho. It’s becoming less stuffy and more breezy in this direction,” Slaine observed. He stopped after walking a few steps as he had reached an unnaturally, abrupt end to the decrepit, stone pathway.

Inaho caught up to Slaine and took a longer gander ahead. A wall of ominous wind roared immediately in front of them but did not push them back. He covered his right eye while allowing his turquoise left to eye peer farther forward and then upward. Farther and farther Inaho could see with the dragon’s eye. Forward, there was nothing besides the thick wall of gust. Upward, on the other hand…

“Inaho…” Slaine called to him again, albeit with a slightly guilty and concerned tone.

The knight withdrew his right hand, facing the magus. “We can reach the surface if we went upwards a few kilometers.”

Slaine chuckled and repeated, “A few kilometers… upward...”

“What..?”

The magus shook his head before resuming their trek. “Nothing.”

“...”

“No need to pout Kaizuka. ‘Just find it hard to believe… you’re willing to walk so much after being cooped up in a castle for a year.”

“It’s unhealthy to remain in one place--”

“Let me correct myself. A library for a year.”

“...”

“Or…” Slaine grinned when turning to face Inaho. “Has Kaizuka Inaho realized the hardships of being Dragonkin?”

“...”

Inaho averted his eyes and bluntly asked, “Do you think you can transform and fly us up, Slaine?” He would rather not remember the arduous process of retreating the draconic horns he had incidentally summoned not so long ago…

“Come now Inaho. That was just the tip of the iceberg.”

Tip of the iceberg… was an understatement. The cold sensation prickled, trickling like ripples in the depths of his being.

“...”

Slaine smirked and made his staff vanish as his eyes began to glow. “Yes, yes. I can give you a lift.”

“ _This is nothing. There is no need to be alarmed. This is simply....”_ He iterated, much like a mantra.

The feeling from before had not dissipated and continued to linger. It had become more bearable but never entirely away. Haunting. Hovering. Ever present.

“ _The frost.”_ Inaho tried to convince himself and climbed onto Slaine’s draconic back.

***   

-???-

_Vers Empire_

_Academy of the Arcane_

 

Looking into a crystal orb, Saazbaum gleamed the Dragon hailing from Himnariki ride up along the Great Rift, a wall of wind outlining the outermost boundaries of the Vers Empire.

“So that is what you’ve decided.” The headmaster stated and rose from his desk. “Very well, King Slaine.”

Saazbaum tightened his hold on his cane and headed out of his office. The time had come.

 

_-Fin_

_Act II: Dragon Magus_

_Act III: Dragon King_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **A/N:** Finally... out of the Chamber of Meditation. Felt like forever but... they just wouldn't cooperate. TT.TT


	12. Phantom Quartz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Third/(Final?) Arc Commencing_  
>  The Dragon Magus and his Knight have traveled far north. They have uncovered a truth nearly forgotten and morphed by the passage of time, and draw near to their final destination. What awaits the new king and his guard?

_**Part III: Dragon King** _

**-XII; Phantom Quartz=**

-Inaho-

Inaho shielded his eyes. The wind howled. The pressure, the fortitude, and the turbulence only increased the longer they remained here.

 _"It's not letting up."_ He observed.

"You say a few kilometers, Orange?! A FEW?!" Slaine mocked telepathically. Inaho had nothing to say back. It should have been a few kilometers. It should have been.

He heard Slaine growl as he was pushed back by the wind. Slaine was growing tired. Rather--

"Inaho... this, this isn't wind." Slaine mumbled.

"Then what is-" Inaho couldn't focus. He could barely keep his hold on the dragon with the howling gales around. Slaine cried as he lost altitude.

"In-Inaho I can't... I can't!" Slaine shouted before the two were sent spinning and somersaulting in the tempest.

Inaho tightened his hold on Slaine but met with nothing in his hold. His heart sank as he braced for impact. He was falling. Squinting his eyes to see what lay past the near winds, he realized what Slaine meant. The wind pulsated. It flickered without rhythm and not in a singular light. The more he focused at a given speckle of the wind, the more he understood what the wind really was.

It was solidified aether, which meant-

Inaho laid flat on the ground. The solidified aether was without a doubt, thick and a force not to be underestimated; it would've killed him if he hadn't cast the grounding spell at the last moment. Thankfully, now he was only left with a tinge of pain.

Opening his eyes, Inaho slowly got onto his feet and surveyed the area. A thick fog hovered and showed no signs of ceasing. It surrounded him and hindered his ability to see much further than a few yards forward. However the diminished visibility was the least of his concerns. The most alarming aspect of his surroundings was the silence; he could not hear the prevalent howl of the rift he had been on. Inaho briskly walked before breaking into a dash. Nothing but dirt and rock filled his view. There neither was a sign of the rift nor anything he could use to get his bearings. No snow, no frozen lake, no forest, and no signs of Slaine. He came to a stop and rested his hands on his knees, catching his breath.

 _“Perhaps through the link?”_ Inaho considered.

The ground shook underneath his very feet. He hurried to cast a grounding spell and gripped the hilt of his sheathed sword. From behind and around him, columns of granite rose and encapsulated him in a dome. Before, the fog of solidified aether had made the surroundings gray and dreary, but he could still see a bit of the other scenery; the sealed space he was in now, on the other hand, made certain everything was uniformly dull and distance indistinguishable. But he was not alone inside the dome; the earth morphed into suits of armor, which stood at attention on either side of him. Crystalline swords resided in their clasped hands while their suits of armor were a mesh of granite and quartz. Only one stood apart -- the lone suit of armor that marched forward to him. It kept its sword in its scabbard and the armor's movements rang with each step; the generated sounds were concise and not muddled like its brethren when they shifted their swords. Inaho realised the suit of armor was made of a different composition, which became crystal clear once it was within arm’s reach. The suit of armor before Inaho shone with a different lustre and brilliance; its chainmail was made of jade and diamond, and furthermore when it removed its helmet, the being within had opal gems in the shape of eyes and obsidian long threads resembling hair.

He blinked and found himself sitting at a table across from his sister, once upon a time when Yuki had urged him to pursue the arcane arts even if it meant separating from her. He couldn’t let that be. Inaho recalled his sister’s fists shake and how much she tried to hold back her tears. Thus, he decided a different path from what his sister had in mind, a path Yuki did not want him to walk -- to become a soldier like her.

The scenery dissipated and crumbled into dust to the scenery before. The recent past echoed in his ears of a promise the two siblings had made -- regardless of what was to come, they’d strive to come back alive.

Inaho was at a loss of words as the stone construct walked up to him, caressing his left cheek. “You may be flesh and blood, but are you really alive, Nao-kun?” Yuki asked. Inaho was pained to see the hurt in her eyes.

Although her flesh was that of cold crystal, her voice still possessed its kind and heartwarming timbre. Deep down, Inaho knew it shouldn't be possible. He could see Yuki was no longer of the living but he could only conclude that it was his sister standing before him. But even so... She had always been more _alive_ than he ever was, even now.

“Nao-kun…” She called. Her opal eyes glistening and mirroring the azure eye that Inaho now bore.

“... This has to be some trick.” Inaho painfully struggled to speak and averted his eyes, his fists shaking on either side.

The suit of armor stepped back. Inaho suspected his response stunned the Yuki doppelganger, but it managed to shock him instead, placing him in its embrace. She gently rested her chin on his shoulder. “No… it’s me Nao-kun. You’ve… you’ve kept your promise even after all that has happened. Even after I’ve…”

“Of… of course… Yuki-ne.”

Even if this was a trick, just this once… Inaho gave in.

-Slaine-

Using his draconic sight, Slaine chased after an orb of light, which carried a reminiscent orange hue. The orb of light carried Inaho’s mana. Slaine was certain it was Inaho, who had temporarily lost his corporeal form in the thick fog of aether.

“INAHO!” Slaine yelled before he tripped, disoriented.

Slaine punched the side of a nearby pillar in frustration. He had lost sight of the orb but to his surprise, the pillar he had touched, illuminated. The pillar at first seemed like a shattered boulder but in truth was pure white quartz. Taking a moment to regain his bearings, Slaine noticed the mist lessen and that he was in the middle of ruins. Surveying the clearing, he jumped when seeing the orb of light. It was nearly out of his sight and instantly Slaine cast a teleportation spell.

Golden calligraphy started to form and spun around Slaine only to entirely wrap him much like thread. Once entirely wrapped, he disappeared without a trace but reappeared earlier than he anticipated. The light he followed, turned and floated next to what resembled an altar made of crystalline rock and ornate with pure diamond, gold, and amethyst gemstones. “Foolish prince. Have you forgotten what you’ve done to this land?” A feminine voice chastised; it came from the orb.

“Prince..? I-” Slaine bit his lower lip. “ _I don’t have time for this!”_ He again looked around for another orb of light in the mist. _“If Inaho’s unconscious, the mist will-”_

The orb of light bolted and blinded him in a point-blank flash. He had been pushed back into the pillar from before but the provoking orb of light was no longer in front of him. Among multiple speckles of light, a small female child visage hovered wrapped in a simple black gown with a long violet obi bow trailing behind. Violet eyes glared daggers back at him amidst the floating brown hair.

“You’re not going anywhere, liar!” She proclaimed and swung her trident at Slaine.

Slaine paled at the sight of the weapon, recognizing it at once. _“The Laevateinn?!”_

He instantly summoned the Bifrost to deflect the attack. From the back of his hand, his family crest glowed, and rays of light weaved and spun like threads made of light and magic, crafting its form into Slaine's grasp. A branch of crystallized, white, petrified wood manifested in the form of a staff and where subtle branches grew, light pulsated much like fireflies where flowers should have been.

The spirit retreated a few steps back and readied her stance. The Laevateinn arguably was a sister weapon to his family heirloom, the Bifrost and was a gift from the Dragons, gifted to their heralds. However its purpose was opposite of the Bifrost; the Laevateinn did not serve as a bridge but instead as a means to sever the very foundation of existence.

 _“Tsk.”_ Slaine mirrored her as his expression became stern.

Negotiation was not an option. The spirit herald smirked and  summoned light into the palm of her free hand. There the culmination of the refractive light, several crystals weaved and within was Slaine’s unconscious Dragon Knight. Much as he had feared, the solidified aether was gathering in the form of an ominous aura around Inaho.

_“As I suspected, that stupid orange is an untrained magus.”_

-Inaho-

Inaho was well aware that this was all a facade, but he played along, letting whatever orchestrated this farce to continue. He tightened his fists as his sister knelt to him. A thought lingered in his mind. _“A delusion you so desperately wish for.”_

“There, that should be tight enough Nao-kun.” Yuki confirmed more so to herself than Inaho. She tightened the clasp of the worn out cloak around his neck and smiled, no longer resembling the earthly construct from before and more of her once humanoid and lively form.

Triumphantly she propped her hands on her waist, approving her handiwork before grasping Inaho’s. She tightened her hold, slightly more than comfortable but it was for good reason. This was the day they left their home country. Like then, Inaho let his eyes wander to the tall wall that domineered overhead. It acted like a dam to the glaciers that frequently melted around summer and from manipulating that dam, their countrymen’s geomancers helped solidified their country’s prosperity as the agricultural center. The prosperity however had ended when the land experienced a drought for several decades and in the last few years, dust bowls became a prevalent, prominent phenomenon. The once prominent Clydesdale Fortress now lay in wait for its impending doom; its people sought refuge in the Vers Empire, the last remaining civilization to the south.

 _“I’m currently in an area of heavily concentrated aether. This is not real. This is a-”_ Inaho tried to remind himself. He continued walking alongside his sister.

 _“A delusion you so desperately wish for.”_ The thought repeated itself as if hovering at the back of his mind.

“Nao-kun, I understand you’ve been reinstated and are no longer in retirement.” Yuki sighed and Inaho noticed the tiredness in her eyes when she looked back at him. As they reenacted the memory, he allowed Yuki to pick him up onto the one farm animal they had kept for their travels -- their horse Sleipnir. Instinctively, he reached for the reins only to find his sister's hands resting over his. In this memory he was nothing more than a mere child. “Why did you go off... And do that? Please tell me you aren’t going out again... on… on a death wish…” Her voice trembled much like her hands on the reins; her knuckles turned white from more than just the cold. She was becoming upset.

Even so, her hands felt and remained unnaturally warm for what she really was. He tried to keep his eyes focused forward but it was useless. In the corner of his eye, he could see her concerned eyes. They were siblings after all and their stubbornness knew no bound. “No... “ He reassured her; it was the truth. “There’s someone I promised to take care of.”

“Take care of?”

“Seylum’s precious friend.”

“The princess’s? My goodness! You’ve given so much to the war effort; surely she wouldn’t… Unbeliev-” Inaho could hear his sister try to stay quiet. It was nostalgic and he felt sad as he anticipated her inevitable failure. “For goodness sakes…”

“I asked her as my reward for my military service.” Inaho felt the ghost of a smile form.

“Oh?” Yuki’s eyes shone with a spark of curiosity.

“He saved me that day. He saved the Empire. If it weren’t for him-”

“So you want to return the favor? Even at the cost of your life?” She cut him off.

Sleipnir had stopped. The dream was off track and was derailing faster off course. The moving caravans and the shifting of the refugees grew distant. The howling of the night escalated much like the escaping warmth Inaho felt from his sister. He too no longer resembled the child he once was and facing Yuki once more, he was reminded of that. Again her focus was on his turquoise eye. It glowed eerily azure and the parts of him that were restored thanks to Slaine shared the same aura.

“Is that promise worth going so far?”

“It’s more than a promise. He is important.” He answered without a moment’s hesitation.

Inaho shivered as he felt a spike of cold strike him. The dreadful feeling was returning. This was not his sister. He was foolish to consider this any possible substitution even for a dream.

“He is a liar. Those feelings are all a perpetual lie so you go so far. He isn’t worth it Nao-”

Inaho unsheathed his sword and cut downward from her right shoulder, down through her left hip. He knew it was a trick, an illusion of his deepest desires, and because he knew, he knew he had entertained the orchestrator long enough... _too_ long actually. Inaho swallowed hard when staring at the opal eyes that resembled, not belonged, to his sister. The crystalline soldier outreached as its arms gave way, eroding into nothing but dust.

"My sister would never have described _this_ feeling in that manner." Inaho reasoned. He lowered his gaze. Something wrapped around his eyes. Fine vines -- bone -- tendrils creeped over his eyes and covered them. They were as cold as ice.

Whatever that something was, its ethereal presence became more obvious to Inaho. As he had suspected, the creature lurking in the darkness covered its tracks in illusionary magecraft. The creature breathed heavily as it hovered over Inaho's right ear, provoking him. "So certain, unskilled geomancer?"

Inaho's eyes teared as its breath lingered. _"Smog,"_ Inaho identified. He gripped his right hand similar to when he held his sword. "She always wanted what was best for me. Your twisted words will not fool me. There is nothing to gain from me."

The bony claws tensed and momentarily dug into Inaho's flesh, much to Inaho's displeasure, but thankfully retreated. Instead they moved to his shoulders. Inaho turned to face the creature -- dissimilar, matching eyes to his. "I beg to differ. You're not as strong as you think you are. Far from it, Foolish Human. Half-baked Dragonkin."

"..."

It withdrew its claws and submerged into the darkness. "You couldn't protect them before. You won't protect **him** either. Not as you are."

Inaho closed his eyes, bracing for the worst.  Without a doubt, he faced the epitome of his inner demons. The frost was far more menacing than he anticipated.

***

"Ina... INAHO!" Slaine exclaimed. His voice was hoarse.

Inaho opened his eyes only to the sound of something clasping shut. He squinted at the sudden brightness and his eyes immediately watered with the flying dirt and sand. He was being rushed away.

"Sl... Slaine?"

Slaine tripped but luckily kept on his feet. He was chasing after Inaho. Inaho grasped at the bars, which were fashioned after a beast's ribcage. Slaine growled in frustration as the distance between them grew and he jumped. The familiar golden calligraphy appeared around Slaine and in place of the humanoid magus, a smaller dragon had appeared. To Inaho's amazement, the calligraphy had tried to reach him only to dissipate immediately once in range.

" _An anti-magic barrier?"_

"ANOTHER DAY WYVERN! BUT NOT TODAY!!!!" Someone Inaho had not recognized, exclaimed overhead.

"SLAINE!"

Slaine cried when the bombardment of red lights shot downwards and fell limp to the ground. The distance grew without end.

-Slaine-

Slaine grasped the earth. There was no dirt but smooth granite. He felt sick from worry. _"This is not right. That can't be!_ " Slaine exclaimed and forced himself onto his feet, but only succeeded to get on all fours.

He squinted his eyes; his mind was still in a haze. The energy beam that hit him was more effective than he would like to give it credit. His chest burned in excruciating pain. He groaned, biting his lower lip as  he heaved to get back on his feet. As he caught his breath and his eyes were able to focus, Slaine was surprised. Someone he could not mistake had walked past through him. Golden hair flowed freely in the autumn wind.

"Hi... Hime?" Slaine blurted and covered his mouth.

Asseylum had stopped.

_"Did she hear me?"_

He was wrong. She had not faced him; her back remained to him and instead she grasped her hands behind her back. Asseylum rocked on her heels. Slaine could just imagine the face she was making and was certain of it. Her nervous apologetic chuckle reached his ears and a smile couldn't help but form on his face. He quietly approached only to stop.

"Forgive me, Inaho-san... You just missed him."

Slaine tilted his head to see another silhouette.

"Inaho..." Slaine mumbled. It was not the Inaho Slaine was looking for. The silhouette was adorned an attire befitting a Terran knight. In this instance, Slaine could see how much time had passed and how much the two had gone through. The Terran Knight before him had cleanly cut brown hair, a pair of crimson eyes and the stereotypical, standard-issue of chain mail. Only the knight's dusk orange cloak showed any distinction from the other foot soldiers. He was not the Dragon Knight Slaine had been traveling with. There was no dissimilar eyes, no unkempt hair that had grown uncomfortably long, no enchanted sword, no weathered cloak, or garments befitting a kingdom almost fit to be a myth.

But most of all, the Terran Knight's eyes differed. Within his eyes, boredom and a coldness Slaine was familiar with -- the resignation and acceptance of the possibility death was just around the corner -- resided. There was neither the playfulness nor iron will of self-preservation Slaine had time after time come to attest and rely on.

Slaine surveyed the area and his gentle smile twisted into a frown. He was most likely unconscious in the real world and lost in a dream, perchance seeing a past event belonging to Inaho. Slaine could only confirm it when seeing his own figure walking ever more into the distance.

Inaho bowed his head. "I apologize, Seylum."

 _"This is definitely the past... "_ Slaine said with an exasperated breath. Neither Inaho could hear him nor was this the Inaho Slaine was trying to find.

Asseylum shook  her head. "No the fault is mine... I said something unnecessary."

"What do you mean?" Inaho questioned.

The two went to the nearby brick wall and sat on top, where the setting sun was prevalent. Below the wall, clash of swords and battle cries of the soldiers were rabid.

"Slaine was unaware of the operation the Orbital Magi will be sent to do."

"... They're to depart at dawn."

"Yes... for him not to know, the Headmaster must have secluded him." Asseylum agreed.

"So he went to discuss the matter."

"Even so... I was certain he would be available today..."

"I am thankful for your consideration Seylum but it is a critical time for the Orbital Magi as well. If the mission goes as planned, there would be less bloodshed involved."

Slaine rose his eyebrow. _“Why are they talking about me? Were we…?”_

Asseylum hesitantly nodded and clasped her hands even harder on her lap. "The Terran Knights are to follow... aren't they?"

The Terran knight remained quiet just as the memory blurred.

Seeing the darkness swallow the memory, Slaine couldn’t help wonder if there was more to be had in that memory. _“Were we supposed to meet much sooner?”_

***

_Vers Empire: Terran Knights Barracks_

_Two years ago…_

The abyss Slaine seemed to forever float in brightened. The ground gained substance and foundation. His breath shook and fluttered in small clouds above him. It was a winter night two years ago. Slaine was certain. From a faraway window, he had seen this scenery. They were no longer idling at the granite corridors that snaked between the Royal Court and the Terran Knight Barracks. Inaho, Slaine and the princess now stood outside the erected medical tents, littering outside the very Medical Ward of the Palace.

Slaine frowned. “ _I should have been here, yet…”_

He stopped. It didn’t matter where he was at this time. There had to be an underlying reason why he was seeing this. Slaine grimaced when seeing the fresh bandage wrapped around Inaho’s left eye. The memory Slaine had stumbled upon must have been right after the wound that would end Inaho’s career in the army.

“Seylum. It’s war,” Inaho poorly assured the princess, who stood before him.

“Even so… Yuki-san… Nina…” Asseylum mumbled before tearing and fighting back a whimper, biting her lip.

“They are fine.”

“You’re to go back to the field soon, aren’t you?”

“Tomorrow midday.”

“...” Asseylum lowered her head, disheartened at such news but her despondence was short-lived. She looked up to Inaho with resolute eyes and proclaimed, “I’ll speak to the Council. I see no reason why we must continue to suffer such losses when we have the means to end this once and for all.”

“Once and..? Seylum, the magic you speak of is a last resort.”

“Is there no better time than now?” Asseylum asked, but did not wait for a reply. She had broken into a run back to the palace.

Inaho proceeded into the palace. Slaine followed. The halls were dark much like the mood of the area was grim. Coughs and cries echoed down the hallway as Inaho passed the medical ward open to the general public.

“We have lost His Majesty to Aldnoah. What makes you think we can use Aldnoah to end this conflict?” A member of the Council asked.

“Do you have any suggestions for another course of action, Advisor Mazuurek? If you think we can negotiate with the enemy, you are blind. They are fiends and are incapable of speech.”

“No. They simply speak a different language than us!” Advisor Mazuurek argued.

“And what makes you think we can peacefully talk to the Kvef?” Inaho queried as he entered the room.

The few members of the Council present scoffed at his presence.

“I did not think there were any surviving Tactical Officers of the Terran Knights.”

Inaho remained silent; he waited for an answer to his question.

“ _What is this tension?”_ Slaine pondered at the change of the councilors’ demeanor.

It was only with the repeated taps of Saazbaum’s cane did all present behave. “We will use Aldnoah.”

“But Headmaster--” Count Mazuurek interrupted only to be silenced by Count Barouchruz, another council member.

Royal Advisor Cruhteo narrowed his eyes. “Empress Asseylum has only just risen to the throne and none of the Royal Family in the past two generations have survived for long after undergoing the rite.”

Saazbaum smiled, summoning a scroll etched in golden calligraphy. “I have engineered an incantation to pass the Draconic burden to another given the authority by the current ruler of Vers.”

Slaine recognized the text and his eyebrows rose. The markings were nostalgic. More nostalgic and he figured out why after Saazbaum adjourned the tactical meeting. Inaho had remained in the chamber with Saazbaum, who could tell the young knight was sharper than the others had given him credit.

Humoring Inaho, Saazbaum asked, “Do you object to this course of action, Terran Knight Kaizuka?”

“Those markings may appear Versian but the numerology and magical arrangement are not.”

Saazbaum’s smile grew into a smirk and the headmaster began to approach Inaho. “I would advise you not to finish that train of thought.”

“The Council may be in a state of desperation to not see your recent actions have proven more questionable. On your fealty to your ruler, Headmaster Saazbaum, is this corruption of Versian magic for the better of the Empire?”

The headmaster chuckled as he resumed his leave. Inaho rose his left arm and tried to stop Saazbaum from leaving by casting stalagmites at the door. However his magecraft was crude, he only managed to produce small stalagmites, where one broke Saazbaum’s cane. However he successfully drew the headmaster’s attention.

“I had underestimated you. You really are of the Kaizuka bloodline, once a proud clan of geomancers and protectors of the Eastern lands.”

“... You did not answer my question.”

“Hmm… I see that is why Her Highness asked about Slaine. We will talk again, Kaizuka Inaho. But that time is not now.”

Slaine walked deeper into the chamber. The memory had seemingly paused and as if  bending to Slaine’s will, it summoned forth the golden runes Headmaster Saazbaum had showcased before. Slaine was becoming more frustrated and impatient. He glared at the sight. It was all a facade. The incantation was nothing but show. The incantation before Slaine’s eyes was simply jargon in Kvef magecraft, camouflaged in Versian text.

“Don’t you see? He was never the Dragon of Vers. He simply helped orchestrate the lie.” There was confidence and arrogance in the clear voice that suddenly came out of nowhere. It differed from the others for its words referred to the present situation.

“Get out.” Inaho demanded forcefully. Slaine had never heard him speak like that before.  

“Inaho..?” Slaine asked, shocked.  He grasped his amulet when turning to the silhouette that had not moved from the door.

The Terran knight crouched. He clawed at his hair while covering his ears. “Get. Out.”

The voice from before cackled. Slaine felt a lump in his throat.. The voice seemed to come from everywhere as if it was omnipresent. _At first_. Slaine prepared a spell in his free hand and his eyes glowed azure. Whatever the presence was, it manifested into a singular concentration of aether that seemed to coil around the room.

Slaine cautiously approached Inaho. “Inaho-”

A strong gust of air filled with smog thrusted Slaine onto his back. Upon sitting up, Slaine could see the Terran Knight Inaho overwritten by the present Inaho, who struggled to retain his grasp on his enchanted sword. The presentable state of the Terran Knight uniform whisked away in dissipating orange rays of light and the more memorably, weathered cloak rested upon the Dragon Knight's shoulders. Underneath the cloak, the standard issue chainmail was replaced with a breastplate and enchanted robes -- all of which was handcrafted by Harklight. Before Inaho, dissimilar colored eyes stared back and belonged to a shadow, a shape Slaine knew was of a dragon.

“Slaine. Get out.”

“Inaho, is that-”

“GET OUT!” Inaho demanded.

The draconic shadow snickered. “You are weak. Incapable. Power-”

Inaho rose his sword from the ground before slamming it back where Inaho’s aether shone. From the very blade the orange aether currents spun and ran like veins upon the ground engulfed in darkness. Beckoning to his summons, the aether brought forth the stalagmites Slaine had seen Inaho cast in the past but this time differed… uncomfortably so. Where the stalagmites should have been composed of earth, bright and cold translucent crystals appeared. The crystals were imbued in an energy that made Slaine shudder in fear. He had only felt the severity, the magnitude of this energy once before long, long ago -- when he had first plunged into depravity a thousand years ago.

Regaining his composure, Slaine was in awe of Inaho’s handiwork. Encased in the corrupted crystal, the dragon was sealed. It was a temporary solution,  however, as already the very edges of the crystal showed signs of fracturing.

“You can’t be here, Slaine.” Inaho voiced. Each word was strained and approaching the crouched Dragon knight, Slaine could see how much of a toll the ritual had done. Rather, Slaine was certain Inaho had cast this spell more than once and more often than Inaho would care to admit, even if such an act was reckless and unwise.

Slaine looked away and back at the restrained dragon. “This would be your draconic form if… if you ever fully used the Dragonkin aspect of your aether.” Slaine commented.

“It may be… but it could just very well be… the corruption…. The frost--”

“What makes you think that?” Slaine interrupted.

“Slaine… we don’t… have the time for this. I can’t protect you right now. We’re-”

“Inaho. What makes you think that?” He repeated.

The Dragon knight tried to answer. His mouth remained still. He didn’t know what to say.

Slaine bitterly smiled and knew if he was awake, his knuckles would be white for how tight he held his amulet. It was infuriating. Frustrating.

“I… I’ve trusted you. You’ve saved me multiple times… countless times…”

“Slaine I haven’t-”

The dragon magus hid his eyes. He could hear the crystal shatter repeatedly and more loudly with each fracture that danced haphazardly from the sealed dragon within. The manifestation of Inaho’s draconic nature was breaking free. Inaho was out of reach more so than before.

Facing the dragon knight as he felt his presence distance and fade, Slaine asked, “Can’t you…” It was hard to bear. He struggled for the words. He willed himself to speak what disheartened him so. “Am I that unworthy… unreliable of your trust?”

 

**_-TBC_ **

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Acknowledgements:**  
>  Thank you icinks, Ruenis and TururaJ for the help in making the third/final(?) arc happen.  
> And thank you, Reader, for your patience. :) 
> 
> _Next Update Estimate:_ So... I've been debating whether to still update this by chapter or wait until I've finished writing all of it. Bluntly I have no idea if this is worthwhile to continue posting. Any feedback on this would help. (Edited: 1/3/18).  
> 

**Author's Note:**

>  **A/N:** TYVM Plum and TururaJ for beta'ing and the moral support to see this work to the end!


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